Areas › Your body
Your body
You cannot think your way out of a body that is braced. This area starts there: the breath, the ground under you, moving, eating, resting, and the small physical things that change how the rest of the day lands.
What works for this
Working from the body first
A body that has not slept, eaten or moved has less left over for holding itself steady. Changing the state you are in is often faster than changing the thoughts you are having, and it is more reliable when you are already worn out.
One move, today
A long slow out breath, longer than the in breath, three times. The out breath is the part that does the work.
What matches
46 practicesThere are small signs that somebody has come back into connection: light in the eyes, a bit of music in the voice, a smile that arrives by itself.
They are easy to see once you know to look, and they are just as useful in reverse. If you are with someone difficult and your own voice has gone…
Breath does not always calm. For some people it opens the door to feeling, for others it puts a little distance in. Find out which it does for you today.
The instruction to breathe deeply gets handed out as though it settles everyone. Plenty of people find that attention to their breath brings the…
Your heart speeds up slightly on every breath in and slows on every breath out. Sit quietly with a hand on your chest and you can feel it.
This is why lengthening the out breath calms you and lengthening the in breath wakes you up. It also means you carry a working control that needs no…
Hum a note you like for a few breaths, and try covering your ears with your palms so the sound fills your head.
The vibration carries through your throat and your inner ear, and humming lengthens the out breath for you without any counting. Choose your own note…
Breathe in, then push the air out gently against a closed throat, or against lightly pinched nostrils, for a couple of seconds.
The change of pressure in your chest is what does the work, and two or three rounds are enough to notice something. Keep it gentle. Straining is…
Whatever happens in a session, the change gets built in the other hours. Choose things you can do at a bus stop with nothing in your hands.
There are roughly 167 waking hours a week outside an appointment, and that is where a practice either becomes yours or quietly disappears. Elaborate…