When I finally decided to commit to meditating daily I found I had one major hang up; I didn't like to breathe deeply. Not only did I not like it but sometimes I couldn't do it; and the harder I tried the worse it became. There were times when I would literally be writhing in my chair trying to catch any breath, let alone a deep one. Deep breathing was, to me, akin to, "I'm suffocating"
One of the things I have learned from adopting the Universal Laws of Attraction and Deliberate Creation to my life is that there is always a solution if you set the intent to feel better about something. I wanted to feel better about meditation. I wanted to go into meditation with joyful expectation rather than with the dread I was sometimes feeling. So I sat with this intent by means of a soul-integration meditation. When I asked myself, "Who here is disturbed?" it became evident to me that breathing deeply and deliberately was triggering subconscious survival memories from other lifetimes. The visions I saw made it clear that I had drowned in a large body of water; that I had also suffocated from some type of poison or smothering; and that in a war-torn setting I deliberately tried to quiet my breath so that my hiding place wasn't discovered. Clearly, deep breathing was linked with my ability to survive...or not.
I realized then that if I was going to breathe deeply I had to find a way to do it that didn't put my body into panic mode. With that understanding I devised a solution that I, and now many of my clients, have found useful. If you struggle with deep breathing, you may find this helpful:
* First, set the intent that you want to relax and enjoy your meditation.
* Be gentle with yourself. Allow your body to find its own natural breathing rhythm and observe it without judgment. Follow the breath as it goes in and out and make no demands on it.
* Soothe yourself with words; acknowledge that all is well and that you don't have to breathe deeply if you don't want to.
* Offer yourself the suggestion of just going a little deeper just to see how it feels; ease into it until you're comfortably taking full, deep breaths.
* Try to start with exhaling the breath completely, rather than inhaling completely, as this usually does not elicit a feeling of panic and the subsequent inhale is then natural and not forced.
Once you have the issues with deep breathing out of the way, we're sometimes left with lazy breathing. When lazy breathing steps in, you might find the following to be effective:
* Start by reminding your body that you are in charge (not the other way around) and that your intent is to connect with spirit through the breath in comfort.
* Begin your meditation with a 15-minute guided meditation that reminds you to breathe deeply.
* Start your breathing by exhaling and exhale completely, even holding your breath for a few counts after the exhale.
* Commit to taking only 6 or 7 deep breaths. By the time you've reached this you'll usually have found a rhythm with it and recognize that it now feels good; not only are you then allowing oxygen to reach the extremities of your cells but you're also aligning with Source Energy.
It is important to know that you may not accomplish all of this in one sitting; it might take several days before your body is able to trust that it is not in danger. The key is to appreciate the orphan within for alerting you to possible danger, to soothe those fears with reassuring words, and to appreciate one breath at a time. This will help you to enjoy your meditations, deep breath and all, and isn't that what it's all about anyway?
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