Friday 1 October 2010
Breathe - don't forget to breathe
A quintessential buddhist meditation practise, vippassana - awareness of the breath, your breath and a phrase we heard so many times on our psychotherapy training course and one which I use with my own clients. It always brings a smile and a shrug, as if we could forget! Our bodies very obligingly do it for us so we can get on with the business of being anxious or angry or confused or happy! When we are experiencing distress fear or shock our breath comes in short, shallow bursts and I know, through my personal experience of panic attacks, that focussing on my breath helped to calm me and bring me back to reality. So it was truly extraordinary breathing that we all enjoyed on Saturday at the beautiful Westernburt Arboretum. To be amongst so many TREES (and they all so deserve capitol letters) was heady and calming and balmy and joyous.
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BuddhaNature,
ReplyDeleteGood to meet you.
Do you know the work of Virginia Satir? She said, somewhere, that our strength is in our breath. In my 30-odd years as a therapist, I came to realise that calming the mind by focusing on the breath could play a vital part in the healing process. It was this simplest of all sitting meditations that led me in to deeper study of the Dharma and to me to my, admittedly heterodox, take on it.
We use our Friends of Westonbirt memberships regularly. The increased oxygen in among the trees seems to be a holiday for the breath as much as for the eyes. I may not be a 'tree-hugger', but, like the song, "I talk to the trees". Although, now that I think about it, I talk to all sorts of animals and things!
Good to meet you Simon the Pilgrim! Thank you for your reference to Virginia Satir. I am delighted to receive your response, being aware of breathing together with your client, in the therapeutic space, holds the potential for healing and transformation YES for all of us. Bless you
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