Change Your Thinking by Changing Your Breathing.
I was feeling low energy and some sadness yesterday. I remembered that sadness is the emotion that the lungs energetically hold. Then I noticed that I was barely breathing.
So, I allowed the weight of my sadness and started to breathe deeper into what was there. I put one hand on my heart, one hand on my belly, and breathed with my sadness.
I then became the field of awareness that was holding the sadness - rather than identifying with the sadness. It then slowly shifted to a soft gentle energy, that could allow whatever was arising to be included.
What a relief.
Did you know that we can change our thinking by changing our breathing?
Our breath is our best friend when we utilize it fully. The way we breathe affects the way we think.
Breathing techniques will be the focus of the Emotional Endurance Digital Program available this fall. Many of us don't know how to breathe deeply, and I'm referring to long, slow, continuous breaths that clear the emotions. Get on the Waitlist to Increase Emotional Endurance!
The deeper into our lungs we breathe, the more of our mind is accessed. When caught in anxiety, worry, doubt, sadness, grief, anger, fear, etc... we are usually only breathing into the very top of our lungs, which are the smallest. This keeps us trapped in a narrow mindset that spins a negative narrative.
If we pause during difficult emotions and start to breathe into the very bottom of our lungs, which are the largest, we can shift out of the small-minded trap and into a much larger perspective.
The lungs are energetically running the strongest in the autumn, which is the easiest time to tonify them and increase their capacity.
A deep diaphragmatic breath massages our abdominal organs as well. They are stimulated and invigorated. These alternating squeezing and relaxing actions help pump blood through the organs of the abdomen and play a key role in moving waste through the intestines. This is why the large intestine is energetically the partner to the lungs; they both receive nourishment and let go of waste.
The lungs are pear-shaped, with the narrow end pointing upward. With chest breathing, only the narrow top part of the lungs is used, rather than the larger, deeper recesses accessed during diaphragmatic breathing.
Less energy is required to breathe with the diaphragm than with the chest muscles. Shallow chest breathing never empties the waste products from the deep recesses of your lungs, where they accumulate and stagnate.
So, whenever possible, breathe from your diaphragm.
When we REGULATE our BREATH
We REGULATE our EMOTIONS
When our mind is stuck in negative patterns, our breath is often being held, or it's very shallow, and there's no awareness of it. This is when we have repressed emotions of resentment, guilt, fear, or loss of control.
With a deep abdominal breath, breathing into the lowest and largest lobes of the lungs relieves pressure on the heart and freshens the flow of circulation to the liver, kidney, spleen, gallbladder, and stomach. It reduces high blood pressure.
This deep breath in yoga poses increases our physical stamina and strengthens confidence. This deep breathing builds greater emotional stamina.
The breath and mind are inseparable. The SELF is actualized.
The mind evolves out of judgments or criticisms and feels unconditional love for all beings. The presence of this breath is deeply healing.
From my long, slow breath to yours~
Namaste,
Maggie