When we get angry or stressed then we hear people saying to us “relax” but definitely just speaking the word can’t make us relaxed. To be relaxed we either need to work it out in our mind or give ourselves some time to come back to normal or practice some technique that can bring relaxation faster.
Our mind and body are connected, a thought can trigger an emotion in our body that affects our breathing (eg. a thought of losing your job might trigger the fear emotion which might make your breathing shallower and faster). Various other changes might happen in the body which is related to the particular emotion, like the secretion of stress hormones when in fear (tightening your muscles, elevated heart rate, shallow breath). While these changes might be helpful to an extent while you are in such a situation (like being chased by a wild animal in a forest, these changes might give you a bit extra boost to run faster or react quickly), the majority of the time we create such stories/scenarios in our head which challenge our survival (fear losing a job, being worried of the future, insecurities, etc). If you are constantly having these thoughts then your body/system is under stress all the time.
It’s true you wouldn’t be able to get rid of these thoughts in one day but you can do some practices to control these and bring your mind to a peaceful state where it can make proper decisions and gradually you might even be able to resolve your fears/insecurities.
Here we have made an audio that explains a simple practice which is called Stomach/Abdominal breathing to relax your body and mind (You can find more details of this type of breathing here). Learning this type of breathing is also a prerequisite for doing many types of Pranayama.
We have made two audio (mp3), the first one consists of some instructions/techniques to learn this type of breathing, and the second one can be done as a meditative or relaxation practice. If you are doing it for the first time then please also listen and perform the techniques mentioned in the first audio (Part 1) and after you learn those you can just use Part 2 for your relaxation/meditation practice.
It is recommended that you choose a quiet place and lie down on the floor/bed/yoga mat on your back, you can use an eye mask (or just cover the eyes with some clothes) for this technique to work even better.
Download Breathing for relaxation instructions/techniques – Part 1
Download Breathing for meditation/relaxation- Part 2
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