Your Ever Present Friend - Breath
- Elizabeth Gell
- Mar 23, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 9, 2022
Point #1: Breathe
This is the first of an 11 point series: Returning to Your Present Self, Again and Again
(as outlined in her book Stay Present: A Child, A Diagnosis, A Family's Way Forward)
Eastern scriptures say there is an intimate and causal connection between the mind, the body, and the breath. Calm any one of these three and the other two will settle down. Using the breath to calm the body is what I address in this first point.
While acknowledging that many methods of working with the breath might be helpful, I offer a simple precaution. From my experience and what I’ve garnered elsewhere, I believe it is best to adhere to a simple “watching” of the inhalation and the exhalation, perhaps with a momentary, effortless, pause between the two to increase your awareness. Eastern scriptures even have Sanskrit names for these special spaces between the breaths!
This pausing between breaths is enough to begin to bring awareness to and settle the mind and body without causing stress to a biological system that is very finely tuned, beyond our ability to comprehend. Even more so than any machine, if you adjust the workings of one “cog” it will affect the working of the others. The breath is so crucial and sends messages of “Safe” or “Danger” throughout the body, so why not stick with the simplest, safest method that works while avoiding the possible Danger signals? Such a simple way to Stay Present.
Libby Gell is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and author of Stay Present: A Child, A Diagnosis, A Family’s Way Forward. She shares her extended family’s journey and offers insights and suggestions on creating joy while handling family crises, medical and otherwise.
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