For the mothers amongst the readers here, you will remember the breathing exercises recommended for labour.
Deep breaths and relaxation were key to delivering the baby without pain killers.
I am transiting through a life experience which is causing pain unlike anything I have ever experienced.
It starts in the morning. If I have slept at all, I wake and as my wits gather themselves something in my chest cavity clenches and descends to my boots.
I will then be tricked into thinking the pain has passed. I may have a period of minutes where the pain is absent but without warning it floods back and washes over me like a tsunami, causing my knees to weaken, my breath to become shallow and my stomach to clench.
Work, which used to be such a saviour for me, a mechanism whereby I could blot out the world, has let me down this time. I can lose whole days in front of an empty screen with nothing written; no thoughts captured.
The only thing I have is my breath. I won’t drug or drink myself into oblivion as I know from my work with clients that the pain remains – the substances simply defer the inevitable.
When you find yourself in a place of soul searching anguish remember your breathing and try taking slow, steady deeper breaths and practice breathing out the pain. Nothing New Age or wacky about it…just a simple mechanism for changing your state from one of unbearable anguish to bruised and hurting calm.
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Breathe in the silence — Breathe out the pain.
Breathe in the beauty — Breathe out the pain.
Breathe in the love — Breathe out the pain.
Yes, you are in a place of soul searching, but when you find that place where your soul lives, you won’t find anguish, you will find your inner peace.
I will be in your inbox at some point today to pass along some things I learned yesterday.
For now, just focus on the breath.
In Peace …