Breathe Your Troubles Away

Karoly Czifra, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

All sorts of breath regulation techniques can calm you down, dramatically shifting your energy. This one is especially good for removing the power that external circumstances have over you. When you take away their bite, you regain power and equanimity in your life.

1. Sit or lie comfortably, in a quiet space, with your back straight. Relax.
2. Close your eyes and take a few deep, slow abdominal breaths.
3. Feel where your reaction to the outside circumstance or person manifests in your physical body. This may be a feeling of tightness or heaviness in your heart, your belly, your throat, shoulders, neck, head …
4. Continue to breathe deeply, directing your breath to the sensation you are focusing on in your body.
5. As you breathe into it, ignore thoughts of the actual triggering circumstance or person and just focus on the sensation itself.
6. Continue this breath until the sensation dissipates. This could be several minutes, or could take more than one session. Any progress will be beneficial.
7. Take a concluding deep breath in and out.

This simple and powerful breathing technique can be applied to OCD triggers as well. Whatever worries you have, rational or not, try to breathe them away and see what happens.

I wish you love and tranquility.