A popular unity Minister, Max Lafser, talked about a woman in Texas who was cleaning her parakeet’s cage with a canister vacuum cleaner and accidently sucked the bird with it. She quickly retrieved the bird from the vacuum’s tank. It was alive, but very dirty. So, the woman washed it with cold water and dried it with hair drier. When a news reporter asked her how is the bird doing? She told him, it is doing fine, but it doesn’t move or sing anymore. It just sits whole day staring at the wall. The definition of “fine,” for some people, is frozen, numb and empty.

This story is so tragic that it almost becomes laughable. The laughter helps us ease the pain and sadness or this ridiculously handled situation. Laughter and crying helps us release the stress because we breathe more deeply and frequently while doing them

 “I now understand that in times of extreme stress and confusion, I can always go back to my breath.”
– Lee Glickstein, Public Speaking Coach

Unless of course of time we develop  breathing blocks, which become permanent if we don’t remove them.

“UNDERSTANDING” Stress, doesn’t mean HANDLING It

The famous personal growth mentor Ram Dass tells how he had spent 10 years  psychoanalyzing his anxiety and even though, he understood his anxiety, he couldn’t get rid of it. It only reduced when he started practicing breathing exercises.

Many grade school children of seem uncontrollable, neurotic, and even evil. But this kind of behavior is mostly a sign of anxiety. I started working with a first grade teacher to teach 16 frenetic children between the ages of 6 to 7, a kety breathing exercise. Most of the students were sick with a cold. We started teaching the exercise by turning them into a game and soon, the teacher started handling the exercises all by himself. The exercise worked like meditation, minus all the fluff associated with the practice   See   http://www.breathing.com/articles/classroomchaos.htm.

I also assisted members of the Inmate Services staff and maximum security inmates at a local county jail. I taught them to“Learn How To Breathe Better” to help them manage their stress. This course was targeted towards controlling drug and alcohol cravings and aggression. The inmates were extremely receptive towards the program and were willing participants in this particular breathing exercise. Inmate Services personnel were quite happy with the results.  

To me the secret of life is creating energy then properly managing it. Whether prisons should be for punishment or for education or both is a matter for serious discussion. But I am getting a very positive response towards my proposal for training the staff at jail facilities, to train one’s inner energy control. I also wish to train public school teachers, and look forward to meeting new contacts which appreciate the power of the way we breathe.

Many exercises such as the yoga complete breathe can calm our senses down temporarily but also reshape the  breathing pattern and reduce the foundation/support and thus cause energetic instability later on.  In the long run, they can even hinder the ease in breathing.

Stress is everywhere and growing.  Did you know that people in Japan are hiring surrogates to be emotionally available for their friends and family?

All of us go through emotional, mental, environmental and physical stress on daily basis. The stress can be both positive and negative. Stresses like burnout, fatigue, shame, guilt, lack of control and helplessness, epidemic-scale autoimmune disease, food allergies, chemical hypersensitivity’s, mental weakness, and confusion are spreading like plague in our society. The way we breathe reduces or worsens all of these.

 “During a breathing session with Mike, I received more release of tension and a stronger sense of inner peace than I ever dreamed possible.” – Ellen Heathcote., Retired former manager of a California State Agency

What is Stress? How can we relieve it?
While teaching stress management, a lecturer held up a glass of water and asked his audience, how heavy do they think the glass is? The audiences’ guesses were from 30g to 500g. At this, the lecturer promptly replied that the weight of water doesn’t matter, what makes the difference, is how we hold the glass. For example, holding the glass for one minute won’t be a problem with anyone, but if someone holds the same glass for one hour, his arm will start aching. But if he is made to hold that glass for a whole day, he might have to go to the hospital. You see, the weight of the water stays the same, but the longer we hold it, the more difficult it becomes to endure.   

The same theory applies for stress management. If we keep our stress inside us for a long time, sooner or later, the stress will become too heavy for us to carry around. So, when you leave for home in the evening, leave the stress of work in the office. Don’t take it home with you.  After all, you deserve to enjoy your life.

STRESS RELIEF TECHNIQUES
The following breathing exercise can be helpful in almost every stressful situation like panic attacks and heart fibrillation: It is based on eventually developing a strong breagthing foundation that will greatly aid in maintaining calm, c0urage and creativity under even extreme duress.

Many breathing exercises do not work with and include the reflexive or effortless inhale phase. Of what I call the Rosetta stone of breathing.  In the long run, neglecting this part may cause constriction in the muscles and loss of optimal deeper natural breathing. 

Take a deep breath and let the air fill your belly. That is if you can really do that.  Many can not " take a deep breath ".   This simple exercise is one of the most widely practiced breathing exercises and is taught by almost every stress management specialist.  It restrains many nervous reactions but actually in the present or over time  may worsen some aspects of anxiety, phobias or asthma.  This "take a deep breath" exercise doesn’t address severe blocks in the breathing or a weak foundaton.  What is needed is to give one the inner sense  of relaxation that is in function and harmony with autonomic nervous balance stemming from optial breathing sequencing and balance. They are completely interdependant. 

 To reduce anxiety or panic attacks, try this exercise: The Squeeze and Breathe.  This exercise doesn’t handle anxiety permanently, but it does, if repeated for five-ten minutes, greatly redue most types of anxiety except thoe caused by drugs. It has  savee many lives and relationships. If you want a more permanent solution, then you will need to change your breathing foundation and  patterns, even during sleep.

If you have any type of  health challenge or wellness goal then you should firstly or at least simultaneously develop your breathing. It complements any stress  management program.  Many times, breathing exercise are all one needs to effectively manage stress.  First learn the fundamentals.