Breathing

 

Breathing is something that I tend to do without conscious awareness ... most of the time. I think that behaviour is typical for most people.

The problem is that I have fallen into some very counterproductive breathing patterns. Science knows that breathing has an almost instantaneous impact on my physiology, my emotional states, and my mental states. It is a scientifically verified phenomenon.

Doctors have observed for some time that a patient's blood pressure is often elevated while in the doctor's office .... pilots call it White Coat Syndrome.

We have a blood pressure cuff in our home.  When I use it, I generally take 3 - 4 readings and I like to watch my blood pressure go down with each successive reading as I practice mindful breathing,  

When I had my ulcers and then started to meditate in the Transcendental Meditation tradition, an immediate awareness that came to me was that my breathing had become short, shallow, and relatively rapid. I am happy to report that that is not typical now although I am aware that I still fall into that pattern in stressful times.

I find that consciously breathing through a negative thought washes away the noxious, deleterious aspects of the thought.  Breathing through resistance thoughts can bring me to the empowered state of mind which overcomes obstacles and drama. Breathing through my positive thoughts is like watering my favorite plants in a beautiful garden.

You can learn more about breathing by visiting my pages on Transcendental Meditation and Panache Desai under the heading, Resources, in my Navigation Bar.

Don't let the brevity of this section mislead you into treating breath as a trivial issue.

I like to study professional athletes at work and copy their breathing patterns.  Remember, what you practise in private, you are rewarded for in public. 

As an aside, if you are interested in learning the state of the art science for managing states of mind and positive attitudes, check out the professional athletes.  That is where the big money is to do the cutting edge research.

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