Yoga for Emotional Balance by Bo Forbes

Author:Bo Forbes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Breath Exercise: Worrying and 1:2 Breathing

In the preceding breath exercises (at the end of chapters 1–3), you experienced three types of breath regulation. First, you observed your breath and noted its patterns. Then, you adjusted your breath to an equal inhale-to-exhale ratio. Third, you regulated your breath further by making your exhale longer than—or twice as long as—your inhale. In this exercise, you’ll combine a mind-calming breathwork technique (1:2 ratio or longer exhale) with something that stimulates your mental anxiety (worrying). This exercise is more challenging than the previous three because it involves creating an anxiety pattern in the mind while you’re using 1:2 Breathing. Balancing these two techniques can be difficult. Please make sure that you’ve become comfortable with the other three breathing exercises first before trying this one. If you haven’t practiced them, do so first to make sure you have a stable foundation of awareness.

When you attempt Worrying and 1:2 Breathing, it’s likely that your mind will worry far more if you lose your focus on the 1:2 breath ratio. If this happens to an uncomfortable degree, feel free to continue just with 1:2 Breathing, or stop the exercise and return to it later. If you’re practicing 1:2 Breathing (you can even make the exhale three times longer than the inhale), you will most likely not be able to worry as intensely as you did before. If you find that you can’t worry as much, that’s the point of the exercise! In many ways this exercise is impossible to do correctly, because 1:2 Breathing and worrying are typically unable to coexist. In fact, 1:2 Breathing (which slows your heart rate and calms your nervous system) and worrying (which increases your heart rate and stimulates your nervous system) are for the most part incompatible. You’re doing this exercise, then, to refine your awareness of how 1:2 Breathing affects the mind and nervous system quickly and effectively.

Get Your Baseline

Once again, in this exercise, you’ll combine a calming (1:2 ratio) breathwork technique with something that stimulates your anxiety (worrying). First get your mental and emotional baseline: How do you feel now? Are you worried? Thinking about the future? Focused on past events? Feeling down? Take a moment to record your thoughts and feelings before you begin.

Do the Practice

Think of something that worries you or makes you angry. For this part of the exercise, keep your eyes open. Begin to think about the conflict or situation you’ve chosen. For the moment, don’t worry about how you’re breathing—it doesn’t matter. Just spend a couple of minutes immersed in the feeling. Let your thoughts run wild, even making the situation more dramatic in your mind’s eye. Now get another baseline; take your current mental and emotional “temperature.” If you choose, you can also take your pulse as you did in 1:2 Breathing.

Now you’re ready to begin the breathwork part. Slowly close your eyes. As you’ve done several times before, direct your neutral focus to your breath. Breathe in and out through your nose. Lengthen both your inhale and your exhale.

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