Breathing Exercise

The following exercise can be performed anywhere, anytime and will be more readily accessible to you as you practice.

Try to find a quite place and dress comfortably.

- Lay down.

1. Do NOTHING. Just lay for one minute. Whatever you feel you feel. Whatever you think you think.

2. Begin to “listen” to your body.

            - Is your attention pulled to a specific place; a wrist, your stomach, a knee?

            - Begin to visualize this body part from the outside in.

             - How do your clothes lay on this part?

             - How does the skin wrinkle or stretch over this part?

              - The muscle, veins, tendons, etc. all the way to the bone.

- Simply have offer the thought “let go”. DO NOT try to do anything. The thought is enough.

- After this thought let your attention wonder again through your body and repeat as long as different parts keeping coming to you.

- If your attention is not pulled to any body part, choose one that has recently been in your mind – an ache, a pain or simply a part you want to try this with.

3. Begin to “listen” to your breathing.

- You are not trying to control or manipulate your breath in any way. You are simply becoming aware of how you are breathing at this moment in time. Continue this for a few minutes.

- Now focus on the pause after you exhale. Again, you are just becoming aware and are not doing anything. There may also be a smaller pause after you inhale but we are going to leave this one alone.

- Allow the thought, my breath does can be continuous.

**Imagine your breath as a ball in the middle of a seesaw. The idea of the breath is to have it roll from side to side without ever hitting and stopping at either end. The higher the seesaw tilts the more likely the ball will hit and stop. Our goal is to allow the seesaw to gently rock back and forth.

-Let your focus drift from the pause to your exhale. As you exhale, try to sense a letting go feeling throughout your entire body. Continue you this for 3-5 minutes.

- As you focus on your exhale begin to slow or “soften” coming into and out of the pause. Continue this for 3 – 5 minutes.

4. Scan your body.

            - How do you feel?

            - Where is your attention?

            - What emotions are you feeling and are they coming from a specific part of your body?