Challenge Yourself to Breathe Consciously
Copyright 2006 Sharron Phillips
Why bother? Our physical makeup provides automatic breathing. In good health we don't need to think about taking a next breath. It happens continuously and without effort. In fact, have you spent any time marveling at how you breathe without conscious thought? Unless someone is instructing you in a yoga, Lamaze, swimming or gym class about when and how to inhale and when and how to exhale, many of us are unaware of what our breathing patterns are and how we can alter them.
What would be the benefits of conscious breath? Here are three that I know. The first is to learn to breathe more deeply to activate more lung capacity. Most of us use only a small fraction of our potential to bring oxygen into our bodies. As our lives become more fast paced, we usually get used to breathing quick, shallow breaths or we start to hold our breath. One of the most dramatic realizations that I was holding my breath happened after a ride to work on very icy roads. When I arrived at my destination and turned off the car ignition, I gasped for air and realized that I had hardly breathed for the entire forty minute, high tension drive. Start checking in with yourself to monitor how you are breathing. This will give you a baseline to your patterns, especially in stressful situations.
The brain and body need a good oxygen supply to function well. Try this experiment. When you are ready to go to sleep, try taking a long, slow, deep breath. Hold the air in your lungs for as long as you can and then slowly exhale. You may be amazed at the feeling of having expanded lungs. It may feel uncomfortable at first. Try this for a few nights in a row and gradually you will feel more comfortable. The next step is to try taking deep breaths periodically during the day. Begin by doing this experiment while you are waiting for a red light, in an elevator, before eating a meal. Hopefully you will begin to breathe more deeply both consciously and unconsciously!
A second benefit of conscious breath is that in times of conflict, upset, or heated moments with family members or strangers, conscious breath my help you avoid doing or saying things that you will regret later on. Breath can help break the cycle of emotional turmoil. Sometimes we have patterns of behavior surrounding the times we feel that we need to defend ourselves which seem to have lives of their own. We 'get on a roll' and can't seem to change it even when we may realize while we're in the middle of it that it won't be productive. I have helped myself by learning to use breath as a tool in these instances. The best you may be able to do in the beginning of learning to take a breath in tense situations, is to remember afterwards that you forgot to take a breath. Believe it or not, this is a first and important step. It is the step where you invite the possibility of doing something a different way. Gradually, you will have the awareness in time to take action. You will understand that stopping to take a breath is likely to be helpful. Changes don't usually happen overnight, so be patient with yourself.
Lastly, conscious breath is a step to deliberate relaxation. Here are some of the times I use breath for deliberate relaxation.....the end of the day, the dentist chair, giving a blood sample at the doctor's office, being in a line in the supermarket, and before I give a presentation to a group. If you don't know how to relax, this is a free, easy and uncomplicated, always available option to choose. Use your breath consciously to slow down, get perspective and feed your brain and body with the oxygen it needs for maximum performance. Put your lungs to work!
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Sharron Phillips is a Personal Development Life Coach and Massage Therapist. She specializes in wellness, relationships, and self expression and is currently writing a book to help women take better care of themselves. For programs and classes, check
http://www.sharronphillipslifecoach.com
Stop Smoking Insights If You Enjoy Smoking
Still smoking? Stopping smoking was very hard for me. I was very ill and had to give up but just couldn't. I was on the nicotine gum, nicotine patches and smoking cigarettes at the same time! Still, looking back, there was one saving grace that helped me. I have never enjoyed a cigarette in my life. Not the first, not the second, not the last, never. It was simply a drug I had to take to function normally in my abnormal life. It made life tolerable and often quite pleasant.
Then one day, I was ready to give up smoking for good. I was hypnotised, and it worked for two years. Then something terrible happened to me and I smoked again. This time, I solved my life's biggest driver to smoke and there was no need to smoke again.
I now specialise in helping others quit smoking for good. When I first started, I was a mere hypnotherapist with some NLP skills and although very successful, I failed a small percentage of my clients with consistent regularity. This was a sad thorn in my side.
I did my statistics regularly. It soon emerged that the person it was hardest for me to help was the smoker who enjoyed smoking the most. At the time, I developed a tactic of helping the "Smoker who enjoys the cigarette" to hate, fear, and be disgusted by the cigarette. This often worked, but there still were some that I felt I should have been able to help but could not. It was very frustrating.
I then also became an Emotional Freedom Technician and started making huge inroads into this elusive area. I was delighted! But there was again a problem. I learnt that for some reason, the "Smoker who enjoys the cigarette" should be asked to attend more than one session. Now that I do this as a rule, I am finally helping smokers with EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) that I have never thought it possible to help before.
So what am I doing right, and how can it help you if you enjoy smoking and would like to stop?
Well, there is something in NLP where you find out what sort of person is successful at achieving a certain goal and use them as a model for others. So if others can do and feel what they do and feel, then they should achieve this goal too.
And it intrigued me how anyone could conceivably enjoy a cigarette in the first place. For a start, cigarettes stink. They make your mouth stink. Your clothes stink. They make your teeth yellow and your dental bills high. They give you wrinkles. They make you very ill, so ill you die. They make you a helpless addict. They cost a lot of money. Towards the end, they give you real physical pain with no let-up. How can anyone possibly enjoy that?!
Well, you're probably different. An exception to the norm. Most "Smokers who enjoy the cigarette" tell me something like "I like the taste" or "I like the way it makes me breathe" or any of the other myriad ways of saying…
… Ready for this?
… If you're not, please stop reading and come back later, because this article says it like it is. The bare truth. In all it's ugliness.
… All the other ways of saying "I don't know how to be happy or have pleasure without drugging my unhappiness".
So that's it. That's how many smokers who do not enjoy smoking succeed in quitting so easily. They recognise that there is an emotional driver for their smoking and are ready to have it removed. They have arrived at the stage in their lives where they are ready to solve the problems leading to the smoking. On the other hand, the "Smoker who enjoys the cigarette" is simply unaware that what they perceive of as "pleasure" is simply "not unhappiness".
It may well be that this unhappy state has become a habit, a comfort zone, maybe true happiness had never been encountered yet. So naturally, the drug that takes away the unhappiness is seen as a pleasure.
So what do you do if you are this type of smoker?
First of all, think about what would make you happy if you didn't have a cigarette. What is missing in your life, and what would you need to solve the situation? Look at all areas of your life and consider what areas you can change to be happier. What is your heart telling you? What negative emotions or experiences do you need out of your system? When was the last time you felt happy without a drug? What was different then? How can you be this happy again?
I hope that this is helping some people towards emotional freedom from the illusion that cigarettes were enjoyable. Once free from this bizarre mind-trick, you are then ready to move on and be truly free.
© 2006 Suzanne Zacharia, Stop Smoking Expert and Author
http://www.stop-smoking-ebook.com
Complementary and alternative health education and empowerment is my passion. I am committed to empowering people to take control of their health and wellness. WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Alternative complementary health expert and author Suzanne Zacharia, publishes the 'New Age Therapies' regular ezine. If achieving your optimal state of health and happiness is your goal, then subscribe now FREE at http://www.NewAgeLondon.com/contact.php
Challenge Yourself to Breathe Consciously
Copyright 2006 Sharron Phillips
Why bother? Our physical makeup provides automatic breathing. In good health we don't need to think about taking a next breath. It happens continuously and without effort. In fact, have you spent any time marveling at how you breathe without conscious thought? Unless someone is instructing you in a yoga, Lamaze, swimming or gym class about when and how to inhale and when and how to exhale, many of us are unaware of what our breathing patterns are and how we can alter them.
What would be the benefits of conscious breath? Here are three that I know. The first is to learn to breathe more deeply to activate more lung capacity. Most of us use only a small fraction of our potential to bring oxygen into our bodies. As our lives become more fast paced, we usually get used to breathing quick, shallow breaths or we start to hold our breath. One of the most dramatic realizations that I was holding my breath happened after a ride to work on very icy roads. When I arrived at my destination and turned off the car ignition, I gasped for air and realized that I had hardly breathed for the entire forty minute, high tension drive. Start checking in with yourself to monitor how you are breathing. This will give you a baseline to your patterns, especially in stressful situations.
The brain and body need a good oxygen supply to function well. Try this experiment. When you are ready to go to sleep, try taking a long, slow, deep breath. Hold the air in your lungs for as long as you can and then slowly exhale. You may be amazed at the feeling of having expanded lungs. It may feel uncomfortable at first. Try this for a few nights in a row and gradually you will feel more comfortable. The next step is to try taking deep breaths periodically during the day. Begin by doing this experiment while you are waiting for a red light, in an elevator, before eating a meal. Hopefully you will begin to breathe more deeply both consciously and unconsciously!
A second benefit of conscious breath is that in times of conflict, upset, or heated moments with family members or strangers, conscious breath my help you avoid doing or saying things that you will regret later on. Breath can help break the cycle of emotional turmoil. Sometimes we have patterns of behavior surrounding the times we feel that we need to defend ourselves which seem to have lives of their own. We 'get on a roll' and can't seem to change it even when we may realize while we're in the middle of it that it won't be productive. I have helped myself by learning to use breath as a tool in these instances. The best you may be able to do in the beginning of learning to take a breath in tense situations, is to remember afterwards that you forgot to take a breath. Believe it or not, this is a first and important step. It is the step where you invite the possibility of doing something a different way. Gradually, you will have the awareness in time to take action. You will understand that stopping to take a breath is likely to be helpful. Changes don't usually happen overnight, so be patient with yourself.
Lastly, conscious breath is a step to deliberate relaxation. Here are some of the times I use breath for deliberate relaxation.....the end of the day, the dentist chair, giving a blood sample at the doctor's office, being in a line in the supermarket, and before I give a presentation to a group. If you don't know how to relax, this is a free, easy and uncomplicated, always available option to choose. Use your breath consciously to slow down, get perspective and feed your brain and body with the oxygen it needs for maximum performance. Put your lungs to work!
------
Sharron Phillips is a Personal Development Life Coach and Massage Therapist. She specializes in wellness, relationships, and self expression and is currently writing a book to help women take better care of themselves. For programs and classes, check
http://www.sharronphillipslifecoach.com