Prayer Breaths

Try what I call a "Prayer Breath". 

I wanted to expand on an earlier post on Inhaling God to fill your pocket with a fresh

perspective on this really effective practice.  I use it all the time to plug into the core of me and find my center.  All the portions I describe: the physical [For a bit more information on the physical move from one nervous system (sympathetic) to the other (parasympathetic) go back to the Inhale God post], emotional, cognitive, spiritual, creative...all of them are included intentionally, for the purpose of firing all parts of you and harnessing focus. 

The body part, physical part:

 Breathe in for a long time. Hold your breath for a long time, exhale for the longest component of the breath (this is a really important rhythm and the length of the components matter--one part inhale, one part hold, two parts exhale). 

Concentrate on three parts of your breath (this is called "Dirga" breathing) for a few breaths.  This is a method of breathing slowly and regularly through the nostrils in such a way that you fill all three chambers of your breathing capacity.

Breathing in slowly through your nostrils, pay attention to the three parts of your breath:   Fill your lower abdomen with air...fill the belly...then your upper abdomen with air...flood your rib cage...finally filling your upper lungs.... flair your collar bones.   Use your hands to gently feel your abdomen, following the filling of each chamber, rising as your entire abdomen and chest fills to its maximum capacity. You might start with a few breaths while reciting "fill the belly, flood the rib cage, flair the collar bones". 

Next, Exhale through your nostrils from your upper chest...soften your collar bones, then to your mid-section...seal rib cage together, finally ending in your lower abdomen again...squeeze the oxygen from the lowest part of your cavity.  You are releasing all the air from your lungs and abdomen in a steady, calm manner.  Again as you exhale, you might recite a few time before you move on  "soften collar bones, seal ribs together, squeeze belly in".

The emotional and cognitive:

Ahead of time, ask your wise inner authority what might be one word, one thing you need more of.  Is it clarity? Peace? Insight? Focus? 

Now pick a word you need to be rid of, something that is not serving you in the present.  Is it confusion? Chaos? Pain? Anxiety

The Spirit:

You will make this a prayer by asking the Lord to impart that which you do not have.  Make your Resource bigger than you, go further than where you leave off. In the breathing out and releasing that which does not serve you, you invoke God's compassion and rouse his mercy to pull out of you what does not mesh with Him.

The creative and imaginative and metaphoric:

Give this word that is the thing you need a color. 

Assign a color to the word that is not serving you, that you are done with.

Imagine as you take in that slow three-part breath that the thing you need and the color of it billows in through your nose, down your wind pipe, through your lungs, and swirl to fill your entire unseen cavity--until you are thick and inky with the thing you are calling in.

Now, as you exhale that same three-part breath you see that old way of being capsuled in the word you choose to be done with...thick and inky inside you, steering your ship where you don't want to go.  Feel l your diaphragm slowly rising and squeezing your breath through those three chambers and out through your nose.  Watch from that wise place in you as that color billows and swirls  out,  evacuating your entire cavity, floating far and dissolving away.

In that one word, request that which does not serve you to be far from you. 

Repeat this process slowly, gently and with great intent.  Focusing on the power over your inner "climate" that accompanies such deep, controlled breaths.  Focusing on the charge you take, and the purpose with which you govern yourself inside and out.