Rosalie's Breathing Technique

This is adapted from a yoga breathing technique.

• - Lie down on your bed (or on the floor) with your head supported.
• - Rest your arms, down to the elbows, at your sides, and position your hands, gently touching each other, on your lower tummy.
• -Imagine that you are sinking down into the bed. Move through your body relaxing all of your muscles, especially concentrating on those in the face and neck.
• -Breathe in and out, taking the breath deep down to your lower tummy, in the approximate rhythm of five heartbeats in to six heartbeats out.
• -After taking a few breaths like this, imagine the air that you are breathing in is coming from a clear, cool blue sky.
• -Then imagine that the air you breathe out is the golden warmth of the sun.
• -Breathe in and out like this several times, keeping these images in your mind, and checking in periodically that your muscles are still relaxed.
• -When you feel comfortable with this, on your next in-breath imagine that you are sending warm and comforting air to all of the areas of your body. Keep this up for a little while. Check again that your muscles are still relaxed.
• -Next send this warm, soothing breath to the part of your body that hurts. After a few breaths imagine that the out breath is taking away the pain.
• Once you've become used to doing this technique, your body will start to anticipate what's going to happen and as soon as you start the out-breath to warm your ache, it fades away.