Breathing Techniques - Relieve the Stress

Tips and techniques from Louis Pezzani's MINDMAGIC Productions

There is no better way to illustrate the mind-body connection than to examine what is known as "Stress". This potentially life-threatening condition is without apparent physical cause, making it a very unusual disease. It also helps to underline the connection between our mental and physical states - and how the two are systemically connected.

Physiologists define stress as how the body reacts to a stressor, real or imagined, a stimulus that causes stress. This can be anything from an upcoming presentation you must make before important clients or collegues; to financial concerns; to relationship difficulties. There are many, many factors which raise stress to levels which can produce results from the inconvenient to life-threatening.

 

A very good resource for information about stress, from how it manifests, to how to better deal with it, is at http://stress.about.com/. About.com is a fantastic resource for many, many topics and is highly recommended.

 

I am not a doctor, but I have explored the mind-body connection for several decades. The mind CAN control the body. And there are occasions when that control can be taken to rather remarkable levels.

 

Stress producing factors are physically removed from the body, and yet can produce measurable physical damage. In that respect, stress is related to psychosomatic illness - where disease is created by the mind of the sufferer rather than by actual physical causes. The flipside of that is "Miraculous" cures, often attributed to the power of prayer - or the belief that one simply will become well. The power of REALLY positive thinking!

 

On the opposite end of that spectrum is the Dark Side. Voodoo and the placing of curses. The stereotypical image of someone sticking pins into a doll and someone on the other side of the world suddenly dropping dead - is not accurate. In every recorded case of someone dying from a curse or spell, and there have been many such cases, that person KNEW that a rite had been performed and had been directed at them. And the victim - believing in its reality - actually caused themselves to die.

 

By thinking about it.

 

No physical connection whatsoever, and yet as with Stress, measurable physical damage. There are many examples in scientific literature examining advanced practitioners of yogic techniques, who are able to adjust their heart rate, internal temperature and other physical processes in ways which are inexplicable to modern science. A lot of these techniques are dangerous in that "tinkering" with the bodies Instinctive Process can produce unforseen and potentially damaging results. However, there are some very simple and extremely effective techniques for controlling physical manifestations (or more accurately, reactions) to negative outside influences, which can produce stress.

I'd like to share with you a very simple and extremely effective method for lowering and better dealing with stress levels in day to day living. This technique can be used in any situation where you feel stress or agitation, and it uses breathing. 

 

Yes, breathing.

 

It works like this.

·         Breath in deeply and slowly for a count of 5.

·         Hold the air in your lungs for another count of 5.

·         Then expel all the air in your lungs for another count of 5.

·         Pause for a count of 5.

 

Repeat 2 or 3 times (no more) and you will find that IMMEDIATELY you are calmer, more aware, and much better focused on handling any task at hand. Try it, it really does work!

 

I often teach this technique in my junior and senior high school motivational programs (Impossible Is Just A Word). It is especially useful for pre-exam jitters but will work for any situation where one is distracted by unnecessary and potentially unhealthy influences. 

 

I also think that the junior high school Teachers get a LOT out of this technique...