Put Your Positive
Intentions into Breathwork
Deep
breathing while drawing geometric shapes in your mind is one
form of practicing sacred geometry. Years ago I attended a
Sound Healing training in Colorado where the Chantmaster for
the Dalai Lama flew in to teach us Tibetan breathing
practices which featured visualizing geometric shapes while
inhaling and exhaling.
Focusing
on this geometric breathing pattern and breathing distracts
you away from intrusive thoughts. Practice deep breathing at
night when you are worried or angered about something and
can’t go to sleep. You can visualize drawing different
geometric shapes that envelope your body or are within your
body as you complete one long breath.
Here is
an energy gathering, problem releasing technique that
utilizes the breath and the imagination to connect you
between the Universe and our planet. You are the bridge
between the Universe and Mother Earth.
Geometric Breathing with Loving Intention
Picture a
tall, skinny rectangle about two inches in width going from
just above the top of your head to the earth beneath your
feet into the earth. As you breathe in, see or sense one
side of the rectangle that goes through your heart down to
under your feet. As you draw the bottom of the rectangle,
hold your breath as you cross over. Then breathe out as you
draw the rectangle coming up through your heart to the top
of your head again. This gives you one deep in and out
breath. To make this practice deeper, add alternate
breathing through the nostrils.
Once
you’ve learned the basic geometry and breath pattern, add an
intention. See or sense the rectangle while you do the in
breath bringing in good energy from the Universe to your
heart and the rest of your body. Then, as you continue
breathing in and downward, release any negative thoughts to
Mother Earth where they are neutralized. After crossing over
on the hold at the bottom of the rectangle, focus on
bringing up good energy from Mother Earth and send it to
your heart and cells as needed. See the thin rectangle as
it goes back above your head to again gather more energy.
Another
helpful technique is Prana Breathing which connects the
right and left side of the brain through breathwork. You
alternate holding the right nostril shut while breathing
gently in the left one, then holding the left nostril shut
while breathing out the right nostril with a long, slow
breath and vice versa which calms the brain and central
nervous system. Prana Breathing gives you bilateral
stimulation which causes you to go back and forth from each
side of your brain creating relaxation. Integration of the
right and left brain hemispheres can be accomplished with
any of the bilateral stimulation techniques which break into
the dysregulated emotional states that were created by
trauma.
There are
numerous breath patterns that are calming. Another approach
is the Fire Breath which is rapid breathing that activates
the vital centers of the autonomic nervous system to bring
the person back into relaxation. For a complete discussion
of many of the ancient breath approaches, see Science of
Breath: a Practical Guide by Swami Rama, Rudolph
Ballentine and Alan Hymes.
Find the
approaches that relax, energize and satisfy you and practice
breath awareness. Ask for peace and understanding about an
issue by saying a prayer with a positive intention to set
the stage for change. You can ask for what you want to
achieve, breathe to create the quiet internal space to allow
an emotional shift to happen.
Breathe
Yourself Thinner!
Here is a
cool study about breathing. A recent headline said “Stress
Morphs into Fat!” Chronic stress combined with a junk food
diet activates a hormone neuropeptide that creates
accumulation of fat in the body. Although people gain weight
for many reasons, a common one is the poor coping mechanism
of turning to food when they are bored, anxious, depressed
or stressed instead of doing an affect-regulation technique.
A study
cited deep breathing as a way to lose weight through
exercising the muscles and internal organs! What if anxious
people turned to deep breathing at the first sign of
distress instead of an activity that isn’t healthy? Getting
oxygen to the cells and organs of the body and exercising
them helps with weight reduction. Blood circulation is
increased and the heart and lungs are exercised through deep
breathing.
Peace and joy,
Lynne (Lynne Namka, Ed. D. © 2009)
“All is contained in the Divine Breath, like
the day in the morning’s dawn.”
Ibn el Aralu
