To Take a Deep Breath

If you feel like it's difficult to take a full breath in, try lengthening by lifting your chin towards the ceiling as you inhale. This motion lifts the chest and gives the lungs more room to expand. As you exhale bring the chin back to a level, center position. Repeat as much as you like, moving slowly and carefully. Enjoy!

Lotus Bodywork

Breathe, You Are Alive!

Today (and tomorrow) is the Day of the Dead in Mexico, a day where they put up pictures of loved ones who have passed, and decorate altars with favorite foods, flowers, and beautiful things. It's a happy day. Today I celebrate my son and especially miss him.

Today is also a day that I am alive. A day to go outside and breathe in the Fall air, the changing trees, to be grateful that I get to be here on the earth and love my family and friends.

I breathe in a full, herby, spicy breath of air, and I slowly breathe out. I feel my body taking in the oxygen, letting out carbon dioxide. I feel my heart beating and I acknowledge that I am LIVING, and that it is for now and not always, and I am grateful!

Lotus Bodywork

Watch Something Slow

Take a three minutes today and watch something that moves slowly. It could be tree branches, the steam off of your coffee, a cobweb in the breeze, you find it.

As you focus on this movement, notice how your own body changes as you take it in. Enjoy these moments of simply observing the beauty in this movement.

Notice your breath slow, your heart rate slow, your thoughts slow, as you let everything go but this one action of watching.

Our lives move inhumanly quickly. But our nature is more like a tree than a computer. It's so wonderful to allow some connection to a graceful movement, and realize that this could be how we live more often!

Take a deep breath, and move gracefully through your next task!


Enjoy!
Jessica Malmberg
Giving You Back to Yourself
Therapuetic Massage and Cranio Sacral Therapy

Begin Where You Are - Starting a Breathing Practice

You don't have to be this really deep, philosphical, spiritual person to have a simple practice of setting aside a moment just for breathing every day.

Now that I have baby Luna my routine has changed, but I CAN wake up, sit with her in my arms, and take three slow, deep breaths, before we start our day. It helps put me in the present moment, in my body, and in an easy state of mind.

The point is, you don't have to change into the person you IMAGINE having this great practice, you can just be exactly who you are, and bring in the breath in a way that works for you. It is helpful to try to do it the same way each day. Here are some hints:

1) Choose a time. (example - morning)
2) Choose a place (bed, couch, porch, car)
3) Choose an amount - ( 3 breaths, 5 minutes, 20 minutes)
4) Do this every day

If you do this the same way each day, see how your days shift, and how your breathing shifts. Keep it simple, and enjoy it!

Lotus Bodywork

Breathing for Flow

"The feeling I like to maintain in my body is a streaming, breezelike sensation in my belly and chest. I call it flow. I take care to notice when I am nout of flow. Usually it is because of some emotion I am withholding. A few good breaths are usually all it takes to reestablish flow in my body." Conscious Breathing by Gay Hendricks, PhD

Conscious breathing doesn't mean you have to be constantly thinking about your breath, but that here and there throughout the day you check in and see if you're tightening up. Things like traffic, a difficult phone call, a long line, can bring up emotions that make us hold the breath. When you notice the holding, allow yourself some refreshing, calm breaths and see if you shift into a nice flow.

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Breathing When You Feel Tired

This excerpt from the book Conscious Breathing by Gay Hendricks tells how he uses breath to help his body during his computer time.

"I have learned to use body-cues as reminders to take a conscious breath or two. One cue is a slightly achy feeling in my back, shoulders, and arms that is a signal to me that I'm getting tired. As I typed, I seemed to feel this cue every five or ten minutes. Whenever I felt it, I would take a few deep belly-breaths and change my body position slightly. The achy feeling would immediately disappear."

Breathing When That's all You Can Do - Like in Childbirth!

I am happy to say that I was able to get through the labor of my second baby without medication, but it wasn't easy! I prepared and prepared with a hypnosis technique, focused on my breath and relaxing every muscle. This was a great help me relax in pregnancy and through labor, and then came the point, towards the end, where I felt like it was too much - I couldn't handle any more, and I said so. My wonderful midwife, Kath Ryn told me, "All you have to do is breathe."

It was not an easy task then - to breathe when I would rather just stop the whole thing! But I did my best - breathe in, huge effort, out, huge effort, just focus on it. It's a metaphor for getting through grief or anger or frustration too - When you can't DO anything to change it, and you have to BE there and ride it out, breathing in, breathing out, gives you something you CAN do. It helps you exist in the moment till something shifts. For me, it ended with the cry of my baby, for you, it will be something else. But remember your breath as a friend always waiting for you. It doesn't make the hard thing go away, but it gives you an anchor to be there with it.

Blessings to you this holiday! With all the mixed blessings the season brings, I wish you time to go within and be peaceful. Much love!