Mindfulness applied to breathing and its uses
One reason therapy fails is that the therapy doesn’t continue after the session, one must become their own therapist to get maximum benefit. Any of these can be incorporated and or added to any therapy biological of psychological
1. as a “breathing exercise” just breathe and be aware of it in the present moment, and moment by moment, accepting and allowing it, not changing it or interfering with it, just feeling its physical sensations
2.as a door to self hypnosis as one calms down and gets more focused give positive suggestions such as on the in breath more aware and alert, and on the out breath, more calm and relaxed
3.as an anchor for meditation, make breathing sensations the exclusive focus, staying in the present moment, feel the flow of the breathing over and over, accepting it as it is, handling distractions to this exclusive focus, by noting the distraction and then returning back to ones exclusive focus on the breathing sensations, over and over, do this for various reasons
a. mental vacation leading to healing- to develop higher levels of mindfulness and concentration leading to calm and relaxation and mental vacation, stop what you are doing, breathe mindfully, over and over, when distracted return back to the breathing, get calmer, rest in the relaxation, doing this over and over, has a healing effect
b. troublesome feelings, thoughts, body sensations like pains, surface as distractions, and can be helped by experiencing them in the meditative process
c. one chooses the problem as the primary object of focus, and burns away the problem
d. one chooses the problem as the primary focus and notices its connections with possible solutions, eg, common issues besides thoughts feelings and body sensations, include relationship issues and their participants, and problem issues like “ I want it, I don’t want it, I want to go, I don’t want to go, who am I , I am nothing or nobody, I am wrong vs I know everything and am right, I am great”
e. one chooses a positive wholesome thing such as compassion, loving kindness, joy, equanimity, or other things like the life force as primary object, and get more of it