Over the years, I’ve written blog posts covering a huge array of approaches to stress reduction. Today I want to emphasize the foundation from which all purposeful attempts at stress reduction springs. Sometimes we overlook or forget about the fact that is basic to all others.
First I want to distinguish between “coping by doing” and “coping by being.” “Doing coping” involves making a behavioral or circumstantial change when what you have been doing to cope ceases to work. “Being coping” gets its power from going “under the turbulence” and letting go in mind and body so as to break the spasm of stress. (Just so you know, being coping, or letting-go coping has been measured to have a positive correlation to rates of pregnancy.)
Let’s zoom in on being coping. No matter the method – mindfulness, the relaxation response, hypnosis or self-hypnosis, breath work, or yoga, for examples – connection to the breath is central to the practice.
The breath is a gift to us – a built-in tranquilizer. Every inhalation feeds us the life force, and every exhalation “massages” the autonomic nervous system into letting-go of stress.
Before you say, “I know … I know …,” try taking a cleansing breath in this way:
A long … slow … deep … inhalation … and when at the top of that inhale,
gulp in an extra burst of air. Then let it out slowly … very slowly.
That’s it. But that extra burst of air is enough to experience the power of the breath as a tranquilizer in a way that is memorable. Making the power of the breath memorable is my point. I want you not only to know, but to realize – really know, the power of this gift.
Helen Adrienne
Re-posted from March 2016
