Caregiving and the Need for Conscious Breathing...
Last month, we discussed the benefits of meditation and creative visualization for the caregiver. Now, we turn to another power tool, called conscious breathing, that can transform not only the way you caregive, but literally the way you live.
As caregivers, we are always holding our breath, physically unable to breath easy in the face of what seem like never-ending crises. Conscious breathing, called the un-therapy by its pioneer, Seth Bartlett, is the simple, yet powerful skill of using a connected breathing rhythm to open your body to a larger flow of life energy. It is a deeply cleansing and powerfully energizing practice, which not only cleans the channels through which your life energy flows, but also opens and permanently widens them, as well.
Since your emotions are simply one form of life energy, the practice of conscious breathing allows you to turn any emotionally intense experience into a gentle one by opening yourself and giving your feelings more room to express naturally and organically. You are able to stay centered and relaxed, no matter what is happening around you.
As a result, you experience more harmony in your relationships than you have ever known. You tend to stop fighting with life or trying to control it in favor of opening to life, tuning in intuitively and allowing the River of Life to carry you. For some of you, the practice of conscious breathing will be your first experience of direct and personal spiritual guidance. You will finally know joy, anticipation, appreciation, gratitude and a deep sense of inner peace as natural and ongoing states of being.
Learning the skill of conscious
breathing is one of the most effective ways to resolve feelings
of being overwhelmed with life, as well as the
debilitating effects of past emotional trauma and chronic, unmet
need. You tend to relax profoundly as you make peace with bottled
up feelings and are empowered to move beyond limiting, defensive
behavioral patterns to the realization of your full creativity
and compassion. You discover how to consciously create exactly
what you intend, while simultaneously learning how to be relaxed
and at peace with whatever life happens to bring you.
Conscious breathing also remains one of the most effective ways to regain your creative focus after a setback. Practicing conscious breathing at these times enables you to let go of any tendency to fight your experience and allows you to open to your emotional response instead.
You will find, as I have, that conscious breathing not only expands your personal sense of power and energy, but gives you a wonderful connection to your true self.
