Counselling and
stress management
in Southampton
Breathing Space
Become aware of:
What you're thinking, feeling and sensing inside
Your breathing
Your breathing and your whole body.
For me, a core purpose of therapy, meditation and Autogenic Therapy is to develop awareness. Here's a Three Minute Breathing Space that may help you slow down, relax, connect to yourself more fully and maybe remember what it's like to have awareness in your driving seat.
You can also listen to and download an audio version by Jon Kabat-Zinn from the Mindful Way Through Depression. You don't need to have a diagnosis of depression to benefit from this, or related, mindfulness practices. When you know the process, you can guide yourself through a breathing space whenever you need an awareness top up.
'Must I take three minutes to do this?'
No. Take longer or shorter depending on what you need.
You're in charge.
'Smile, breathe and go slowly.'
Thich Nhat Hanh
Millions of people around the world practice meditation on a daily basis. If you want to establish a regular mindfulness practice, The Mindful Way Through Depression book (link above) takes you through an accessible and well researched eight week course. It's a cost-effective way to check things out before signing up to a more expensive Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course or learning a related practice such as Autogenic Therapy.
Mindful breathing
Thick Nhat Hahn describes eight mindful breathing practices from the Buddhist tradition. These include awareness of breath and following the breath (1 and 2), awareness of the body and calming the body (3 and 4), generating joy and happiness (5 and 6) and awareness of pain and calming/soothing pain (7 and 8). I see important overlaps between these important ideas and how the Gestalt approch seeks to develop awareness.