Last Monday night, Lisa led us in a practice called Mindful Breathwork. As we slow our breath and keep our attention focused on each inhalation and exhalation, the heart slows and sends a message to the brain to be calm.
God is everywhere. Like the air. I can’t see it, but I know it is there. God’s Spirit is in me, just like each breath I take. The breath gives life. When I slow down, the peace I feel is satisfying.
We talked about the Holidays and how there are mixed emotions. Sadly, most of us have dysfunction resulting from trauma in our extended families. People are estranged or they come to family gatherings out of obligation and walk on eggshells.
If you are someone whose family gatherings can be a challenge, and you find yourself being triggered, excuse yourself…go to the bathroom and do some deep breathing. Ask God to give you strength to stay calm, mature, and centered. When you go home, take care of yourself. Try journaling, praying, deep breathing, or even smashing an empty chair with a pillow.
When you are able, express gratitude for what your FOO: Family of Origin gave you. Let go of what they did not. Breath deeply. Experience more peace during this holiday season.
PHASE 2: I CAN SHARE WHATEVER IS COMFORTABLE OF MY TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE. I ACKNOWLEDGE GOD DOES NOT CAUSE TRAUMA, PEOPLE DO.
Mindful Breath Work
Trauma likes to keep us in a state of stress — where we're only working on emergency systems, and all of our energy and breath is diverted from organs to feed our legs and arms so that we can fight, flee, or freeze and face whatever is coming for us.
This puts a lot of our system in a stand-by pattern, especially our breath. From the moment we were born, we knew how to breathe and how to breathe well — however, all too often in modern society, we have forgotten how to breathe and how to use our breath to help our bodies, our minds, and even our hearts.
For trauma survivors, as we start to tell our stories, our breath can disappear, and our hearts can beat wildly out of our chests. When we think about God, we may still hold mixed feelings and may not be ready to let him in because of everything we're carrying. He wants to help us lighten our burdens.
Did you know that your heart is supposed to have a variable heartbeat? When you breathe in, your heart is supposed to beat faster than when you breathe out. Most people who have experienced trauma have very little variance between their inbreath and outbreath. That variance is one thing that helps our nervous system to come out of fight, flight, freeze mode, and back into rest and digest. Even though our trauma is disrupting this process, God has given us a way to help fix it.
For today, we're going to work on three breaths per minute, and I'm going to build the breath counts up to it — this means that we will start with shorter breaths and come into longer counts as we move forward. If the breathing is too long for you — if my counts continue passed what is comfortable for you — that's okay, let your breath come back to normal, and try to follow on the next one.
To repeat this practice at home:
Close your eyes and get comfortable where your belly and move in and out without obstruction.
Ask God to be with you and acknowledge how wonderfully you were made — and how He wants to help restore to full health.
Put a hand on your heart and feel God's love for you.
Breathe into a count of two. Out to a count of three.
When you are ready, breathe in to a count of three and out to a count of four.
Keep progressing until you're breathing into a count of seven and out to a count of eight.
After three to five minutes, become aware of the change in your heartbeat.
When you're ready, acknowledge God is for you and always be prepared to help you.
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