Have you ever noticed that when life is going well it’s easy to pause, breathe, even find that in these quiet moments, we are grateful that life is good! Everything around us seems more beautiful, difficult situations and people are more entertaining than draining and the little things that might get to you on a bad day go un-noticed?
Love those days –
So does your breath and your body –
Have you also noticed that when things are not going your way, and nothing seems to be working, it is the opposite? We feel overwhelmed, anxious, maybe even in a state of panic to try to fix or get out of our situation. It’s almost as if something as if the situation, feeling or emotion has taken us over and in these moments, sometimes we let it. Reacting with anger, frustration, withdrawing from the world and support hoping we will release the build-up or suffer until it settles.
It is in these moments, that we most need to BREATHE
It is also in these moments, where we are least likely to remember that
or – feel like doing it.
In the heat of the moment – how does it go over when someone tells you to ‘CALM DOWN?”
Our brains feel the same way – we are usually triggered by the intense experience, from trauma, panic, anxiety, to the build up of daily stress or a few things not going right and this can be enough to bring on a stress response in our bodies you might recognize as fight, flight or freeze.
In this place, we lose access to the answers, solutions, love, and compassion that is usually what is most needed.
we lose this because a switch has been flipped – emotionally and literally. You will find that now you are operating from a very limited place – your survival brain. It is very useful for REAL emergencies, but otherwise, it hinders us in every area of our lives. It keeps us from love, connection, what is true for us and the situation, problem-solving, insight, intuition, brilliance, and ability to just BE.
Sadly we feel powerless to change the way we feel, we would if we could – sometimes we are so aware that we are in this cycle and trap and yet we don’t know how to flip the switch back.
It starts with your breath, it sounds so simple, doesn’t it?
IT IS – let it be simple!
Simple is what you need most in these moments. You cannot reason yourself out of it (at least not without suffering a lot more), you can’t force it to go away, you can’t seem to ignore it or avoid it.
Your breath, breathwork is the switch.
I didn’t believe it either – after all, I have been breathing my whole life unconsciously and things life still happens.
Breathing consciously and in a specific pattern that engages your diaphragm and chest creates a bridge, you might even call it a lifeline between your unconscious and conscious to reel you back in, allow you to see things as they really are, as you really are and replacing the feeling of a threat or doom with safety and security. When we feel safe and secure we have an unshakable foundation where healing, transformation, compassion, love, and pure potential can intervene on our behalf.
In the moments where you don’t feel like it…
BREATHE deeply and fully into your belly and repeat
Practice breathwork, so that these moments lose their power over you.
Realize you have always had this power.