Use the breath to bring ease and comfort to your body
aches and pains dissolve as you use coordinated breath along with subtle movements
part of the healing effects of sleep take place due to the body’s automatic deep breathing that is triggered once you enter slumber.
Why wait until you sleep to breath deep and steady?
The majority of humans only really receive the benefits of breath when they are sleeping. When one goes to sleep there is an automatic response from the body to breath deep and steady. You can actively and consciously control the cadence of your breath. The breath isn’t only an unconscious and automatic response. We can control the breath. Indeed, the breath is automatic. But it can also be easily controlled by your own will. The breath can be used as a gateway to control over other seemingly automatic functions of the body, like heart rate, orgasm, auto-immune, etc… Many masters can get their heart rate down to an imperceptible level. When no pulse is detected onlookers may be concerned they are dead. But indeed they are the most alive.
Do you ever feel short of breath? Erratic breathing? Share it with us in the comments section below
the breath can be used as a most effective way to massage the body from the inside.
I am sure most of you know the benefits of massage. These include:
- increased circulation
- lymphatic draining
- relaxation
- released lactic acid
All of these same rewards occur when you use your breath and focus on the injured area. Inhales and exhales apply and release pressure, just like a healers hands, but from the inside out. A massage therapist will knead away the aches and pains from the outside. The breath dissolves pain from the inside. It is more subtle than massage. With a little patience you can discover and reorganize the micro-connectivity in your body.
Another advantage here is you take ownership of your own healing. You don’t have to wait for your therapy appointment. You can reenergize your own cells any time you like. You are a self sufficient regenerative being. With your personal internal practice in conjunction with external healing from community, you will be super powerful.
Inhales and exhales should be full and deep.
These complete and steady breaths energize all yours cells. Breathing should be moderately slow. We remove blockages and open up new pathways. Encourage new energy to ripen.
Discover where your body hurts. Ask yourself, “ where is my pain?” For some of you this may be obvious. Others may require more exploration. Bring yourself into a pose where you might feel pain from an injury or illness. Move deeper into the pose until you feel a sharp pain, then back off the pose a little. Ease off to the point that the sharp pain subsides, and hold there. This is your radius of healing. A subtle arch from pain to comfort. It may be the difference of a couple millimeters, or several inches. Nonetheless this radius is generally very small. It is generally never as large as a foot. However, nothing is set in stone and there are always variables. You want to find the point where you feel comfortable while breathing shallow. But, in that same position, there is pain during a deep breath. At this point you will feel a slight pain on either the fullest inhale or exhale.
The pressure resulting from the breathing can yield pain or relief at different intervals and in different situations. For instance inhale…pain, exhale… relief. Or it may hurt when you exhale more than when you inhale. Continue to bring yourself from comfort to pain through the gradient of this breath. Move to and from the pain. Move in and out of comfort using only the breath. Gradually the body will realize that it is not in danger and healing begins. The body realizes that the pain is only temporary. The pain is not constant. Let it dissolve.
Awareness is the first step
Noticing these variations in sensation will bring you great personal physical awareness.
Then it is time for action.
Like doing weightlifting reps on a micro scale. Do your breathing reps inside your radius of healing.
Continue to breath deep and watch as you experience peaks and valleys of pain. With this technique the pain trends toward release. Sometimes you may feel relief. Other times you may discover pain you forgot was there. We go numb for a variety of reasons. In an attempt to run from the pain the mind will disconnect from the body. The result is a decrease in sensation.
Even though you may unearth some old pain, overall the body feels better and better. Gradually through this process you will be able to gain greater levels of ability and comfort. If you have chronic pain then we just have to use a different gradient scale. Everyones radius of healing is different. Find the pose of most pain… move out to a point of less pain… and breath.
so… for the relatively healthy person the radius will be (pain<——–>relief). for the person with chronic pain the current gradient scale will move from (pain<——>less pain). Of course, even the person with chronic pain will eventually achieve perfect relief through this technique.
Acknowledge the pain… thank the pain for lessons learned. Now invite new joyous sensation into your life.
We are bringing awareness to the body. We are acknowledging the pain, rather than avoiding it, and we move patiently and incrementally into and out of it. Not too fast, not too slow, just the right amount. The right thing at the right moment or Ishvarpranidan in sanskrit. If one moves too fast the injury may become worse or cause other injuries to occur. If one moves too slow, results will be lost, or stagnation may occur. However, moving slowly, in most cases, is better than doing nothing. The lack of movement trends towards death. Life likes movement. Absence of movement should not be confused with conscious purposeful stillness however. With conscious stillness there only appears to be nothing happening. Meanwhile there is infinite internal movement. Pause and witness the microscopic universes swirling inside of you.