D.Y.I.N.G.
Distance Yields Insightful Nurturing Guidance
I’m dying! Can you hear what I’m saying? I’m dying. Literally and figuratively from the day I was born. Dying into death so that I might be enlivened in life. A process of surrender into a remembered rendition of myself BEFORE the implementation of CONTROL (more delicately referred to as insulation, protection, or safety mechanism).
But, when was that?
When was I not employing the vehicle of CONTROL?
And, how did that experience FEEL?
What is it like to experience the sensation of complete awareness, wholeness, release, held, trust, supported, undoing, softening, melting, just being, allowing and receivership?
This is where my focus is these days and they say that “Where attention goes, energy flows.”
So I was turning the dial back on my human experience and found my earliest memory of embracing a protective mechanism was when I was an infant. Actually, I was told this story. I do not have the cognitive recollection.
I was told that I held my breath until I turned purple. The matronly, experienced, stern baby nurse told my very young, naïve mother not to be alarmed and that I would breathe when I felt it necessary. This struck me as significant. Obviously, I kept breathing.
I found that interesting because the color purple signifies clairvoyance (clear sight) of which I have enjoyed the gifts most of my life. That ethereal quality, coupled with a
kind of “insistence” (holding on) to how things are “supposed to” unfold, are quite unusual bedfellows.
The breath is our life force and how we breathe is metaphoric for how we live.
Maybe by holding my breath I was attempting to covet all of the abundance that could be had. After all, our breath is our life force and oxygen is both abundant and necessary for life sustainment.
Maybe as a vibrant, expansive soul recently pressed into a small body, I had trepidations about what would come next and this was my way of ensuring my desires were met in a way that was satisfying and comforting. After all, spirit into form (birth) and form back into spirit (death) are monumental shifts in our states of consciousness.
Maybe there was a bit of a rebellion. – An earthling’s challenge (resistance) to the notion of
1. P.R.O.C.E.S.S. i.e. Time takes time .
Being with things in their natural time was not exactly what this earthling signed up for so I thought! Get all the oxygen/life force while you can! Ya never know what’s around the corner.
Can you relate in some aspect of your life?
Placing Realizations Over Comparative Externals Supports Soulfulness
2. TRUSTING the inhale and the exhale which is synonymous with the ebb & flow of life.
Maybe the current day’s “upset” ( drama/predicament/story) is really a signal ( knock on the door) to return to the early life’s “set up” so excavation of my true nature might surface.
Maybe this breathing pattern was the early signs of what was happening all around me in the externalized world. A society that “PUSHES” through life. Maybe today’s soulful stirring is the calling, the adventure, the desire and the passion to bring balance to that dynamic. After all, everything always starts on an individual basis.
Pressure Uncovers Significant Happenings
What was your earliest memory of a safety mechanism and how has that impacted your choices and pathway in your life?
BREATH AWARENESS
If you have no idea, begin by noticing how you breathe.
-Are your inhalations longer than your exhalations, vice versa or balanced?
-Do you pause between breaths? If so, at the top of the inhale or at the bottom of the exhale? It all has meaning.
-Do you hold your breath? If so, what kinds of daily circumstances trigger that safety mechanism?
-How aware are you of your breathing patterns?
-Do you breathe diaphragmatically or are you mostly in chest or mid-section?
-Is it fluid like a wave or forced, choppy, shallow, and abrupt?
-Is your inhalation long and glorious? Is your exhalation effortless or pushed?
-Is it hard to breathe all together?
-How consciously do you breathe on a daily basis in times of stress, excitement, relaxation, when you are around certain people, places or things etc?
All of your patterns have significance and there is much to be gained with this insight!
BREATH AS IT RELATES TO YOUR PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR AND EMOTIONS
Taking time to breath creates a DISTANCING effect (broader perspective) from the story de jour (the saga, crisis, predicament, drama) no matter how important your mind makes the “dilemma”. It YIELDS ( slows down) the typical habitual pattern and gives you INSIGHTFUL, supportive, life affirming GUIDANCE (information).
It gives us time to simply “FEEL” and allow the energy to move.
That is what E-MOTIONS are: Energy in Motion
If you had an early life circumstance that did not allow you the safety of time and space to fully feel into the experience, that UNFELT EMOTION creates an energetic block and embeds itself into the fibers of your body and psyche. It fortifies that early “safety mechanism” and CONTROL even when it is no longer a relevant tool in your life.
E.M.O.T.I.O.N.S.
Experiences Move Our Touchstones Integrating Omnipotent Notable Senses
For example:
As a child, if you had to be on your toes and quite hyper vigilant to maintain a sense of safety in your household, that is both a gift and a shadow.
It is a gift because you are probably able to tune into other people’s emotional states quite easily. You are sensitive and it serves you.
It is a shadow if you continue to maintain a hyper vigilant pattern of behavior such as going at a fast pace simply out of habit. It produces anxiety or panic or dis-ease. This fast pace can prompt your adrenals to be in over drive and you may find yourself quite exhausted. In this case, the exhaustion/overwhelm/ confusion is a gentle tap on the door. That tap will turn into a big loud knock until our awareness heightens to the point we are able to discern the message.
I have witnessed this dynamic along with many other nuances with a number of my breathing clients.
Breathing works on a physical, mental, emotional and energetic level. Intentional breathing consciously cultivates the time and space which gives rise to heightened levels of awareness and knowingness of what internal dynamic wants to shift. The conscious breath allows for the death of the safety mechanism (habit) so that embracing an enlivened sense of freedom is a more natural course.
Part 2 will be blogged next month
MINDFULNESS EXERCISE:
-Create a playlist. Start with 5 minutes or 100 breaths
-Lie down with your head elevated
-Place one hand on your lower belly and one hand on your heart.
-Deeply and slowly inhale a long breath noticing how your lower belly expands as the oxygen enters.
-Notice if your chest also expands as you invite the expansive oxygen ( life force) into your system.
-The exhalation is simply an effortless relaxation. Avoid pushing out the exhale.
Ideally, you want a wave effect.
For individuals new to my method, contact me by May 1, 2018 for a complementary breath session so that I might support you in cultivating more awareness through your own breathing practice.
2015-2018 © Darryn Silver all rights reserved