Life involves both highs and lows, joy and sadness, abundance and loss. Both the dark and the light are always present in our lives and in our bodies. Honoring this duality is an important step in easing your stress. Here is an exercise to help you find the peace, strength, vitality and love that are present in your body and in the world when it all feels like too much.
1) Overlap your hands, so that the palm of one is laid on top of the back of the other.
2) Put your hands on your upper chest, just below your collarbone. Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. For the rest of this exercise, when you breathe it will always be in through your nose and out your mouth.
Focus on breathing into the area where your hands are. Notice how it feels to breathe into this part of your body.
3) Now inhale into the area closer to where your stomach meets your ribs. Notice how it feels to breathe into this part of your body.
4) Move your hands down so that they are just below your belly button. Breathe into this area. Become aware of how it feels to breath into your abdomen.
5) Put your hands back on your upper chest and take a deep breath. Alternate taking a slow deep breath from your chest, to your belly button, and then into your abdomen. As you are breathing, say out loud: “I have different parts. I have different rhythms.”
6) Notice the difference in these three parts of your body. Notice the same sensation (relaxation, pain, etc) is not equally present in all three. In which area is the sensation stronger? For example: Is the sense of peace you feel when you breathe into your upper chest stronger that the sense of peace you feel in your abdomen? In which area is the sensation the least strong?
7) Put your hands at the part of your body that has a stronger feeling and say: “This rhythm is stronger.” Put your hands on the position that feels less intensity and say: “This rhythm is weaker.” Repeat three times.
8) Now notice which area feels the most comfortable to breathe into and which area feels the least comfortable. Alternate between those two parts of your body, saying “I have parts that I like and parts that I don’t like. I have parts that are great and parts that are challenging. But they are all me.”
9) Take three breaths into the part that feels easy and good to breathe into. Then take one breath into the part that feels hard or painful to breathe into. Alternate between 3 breaths in the area of ease and 1 in the area of discomfort. Repeat this for a few minutes
10) Notice how it feels to connect and be present with the different parts of your body. Notice how feelings change simply by accepting them. Just by being aware of the good and the bad feelings, you may have a stronger ability to get less hung up on the bad feelings.
This exercise is especially important during times when it is easy to be focused on the bad things and forget that there is a lot of beauty, joy and peace. Both are present. And we need to respect both the good and the bad. We cannot ignore either of them.
