Feeling The Tension?
It certainly is stressful these days; more than I remember it for a while. The last time Trisha and I felt this strung out was in the 60’s when assassination and rioting were filling the news. It was a very sad time and a very tense one.
Today’s economic crisis is on everyone’s mind and is causing many of us to carry a lot of tension in our bodies. For this and other causes, it is becoming more and more important for us to find and use simple and available techniques to calm ourselves down.
Over time, we have learned that a tense mind manifests itself within a self created tense body, and that by purposely forcing the body to relax will relax the mind. All can be in harmony within and without.
There are numerous ways to do that and the media is constantly coming up with suggestions. But many of them, while being perfectly reasonable, require us to inconvenience ourselves (go to the gym, go running, etc.) or, perhaps better said, take a lot of time and remove us from our other routines. Of course we are not even considering the use of any medication, legal or otherwise, as that would be unnatural and even possibly unhealthy.
A Simple Yoga Breathing Technique
Trisha learned from her Yoga teacher some years ago a simple technique that I found works very well. It requires no special equipment, and can be done anywhere without drawing attention. It is an easy breathing exercise and I would like to share it with you now.
First, find a comfortable chair to sit in, legs uncrossed, your back straight, and your “other” hand in your lap. That’s the left if you are a righty, etc..
Second, with a finger, occlude (cover) one nostril and slowly breathe in with the other (mouth closed) to the slow count of 7 (about 7 seconds or so). Make sure you are taking a really deep breath. Your stomach should protrude while you are blowing up the balloon. Hold the breath in for a count of 7 and then switch your finger to occlude the other nostril and slowly (count of 7) breathe out only through your nostril. Squeeze all the air out of the balloon, and repeat the exercise.
Third, count another 7 and repeat 3-4 more times. This shouldn’t take you more than a couple of minutes and you will feel the calming effects immediately
That’s it! You can do this in your car waiting for a red light, lunchtime, etc. Sometimes learning something as simple as this can make a big change in your life. I hope this at least helps you to be calmer, happier. We are always going to be faced with new stresses, it is up to us how we are going to react to it.
Stay well, and stay tuned for our next post to help you add serenity to your life.
Fri, Jun 5, 2009
Health