Breath

Picture by Scott Webb via https://www.pexels.com/u/scottwebb/

One of my major goals in practicing mindfulness, both through meditation and Tai Chi, is to help restore my body’s natural flow of breath, to maintain healthy relaxed deep breathing throughout my day.

Breathing is the most important action of our lives, everyday, every minute, every moment. I have regularly practice deep belly breathing as my main breathing method, imagining my belly filling from the bottom up (and out) as I inhale and emptying from the top down as I exhale. Recently one of my favorite acupuncturists gave me a new visualization for my breathing practice.

When you inhale imagine an empty balloon in your stomach expanding out in all three dimensions, all six directions — out and back, up and down, left and right. Especially focus on the expansion backwards as you inhale, gently messaging your kidneys, adrenal glands, and lower spine. As you exhale slowly, imagine the expanded balloon shrinking again in all thee dimensions until it is shriveled and empty. The acupuncturist stated that this focus on gently messaging your adrenal glands, lower back, and kidneys, can help to reduce anxiety and stress — both of which I have been struggling with lately.

Since I have consistently focused on mindfulness and breathing practice I have been more able to maintain deeply breathing during stressful and intense interactions at work, and this allows me to stay more present in my cortex, to better avoid getting caught up in impulsive, emotional, and unconscious reactions to events.

My next step is making this happen for my life at home. For some reason I am still allowing myself to get carried away and caught in quick unconscious reactions in my home — getting angry and yelling at my family members sometimes. I find myself cursing gravity when things are clearly out of my control. My next intentional practice is mindful parenting. Breath, relax, and note that it is all going to be okay.