Dan Keusal, M.S., LMFT
Jungian Psychotherapy for Individuals & Couples
"Find Your Purpose, Heal Your Pain, Live With Passion"
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Holidays 2014 edition: "Breathe often..."
NOTE: the essay from this edition, "Breath Often," can be found below.
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"Breathe Often"
I once saw a bumper sticker that read "Breathe deeply, breathe often." This time of year, therapists, life coaches, nutritionists, physicians, ministers, and other "helpers"...each have their own suggestions about how to cope with
'holiday stress.' Here's mine: "Breathe deeply, breathe often."
Taking a single breath--a long...slow...deep...breath--and doing it often...can make a real difference:
Before you get out of bed in the morning...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you hit the "on" button on whatever machine makes your morning coffee or tea...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you start your car...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you pick up your mobile phone, every single time you reach for it...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you turn on your computer, or enter your password (or both)...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you take a bite of anything you eat, or a sip of anything you drink (whether it's a meal or a snack)..take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you respond to something a family member has said at a holiday gathering (whether what they said has annoyed you or delighted you)...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you start your work day (however and whatever that looks like)...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you respond to a co-worker or a customer or a client...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you turn on your TV, or turn to the internet...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you swipe your credit card at any store, or enter your credit card number for
a purchase on the internet, or reach for the cash in your wallet...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you open your paycheck (or check your online banking to make sure your direct deposit was, in fact, directly deposited)...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you start to buy, or wrap, a holiday gift, or write a holiday card...take one long, slow, deep breath.
Before you go to sleep at night, after you've turned out all the lights...take one long, slow, deep breath.
I'm not trying to be simplistic, or suggest that this will take away all the stress or anxiety or grief or depression in your life, but breathing does make a difference. In "The Power of Breathing," a chapter in his classic book on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn writes that breathing is "the pulse of life in us, the rhythm of the primordial sea internalized, the ebb and flow of matter and energy in our bodies." He adds "In meditation, the breath functions as an anchor for our attention. Tuning to it...allows us to drop below the surface agitations of the mind into relaxation, calmness, and stability."
Taking long, slow, deep breaths...won't increase your paycheck...or decrease the amount of traffic you encounter...or change how old (or young) you are...but it just might change your relationship to these, and many other, life experiences.
And that...can make any day...a holiday. (P.S. After the first few "Before you..." items above, did you skip over reading "take one long, slow, deep breath" at the end...because it was starting to feel redundant? Go back, try it again...and this time...as you read "take one long, slow, deep breath"...try TAKING...one long, slow, deep breath).(back to Table of Contents)
Dan Keusal, M.S., LMFT, Psychotherapist. (206) 523-1340. Email: dankeusal@dankeusal.com
