“The breath is the gateway to consciousness.”

-Judith Lasater

Every morning I begin my commute with a passage from the book “A Year of Living Your Yoga” by Judith Lasater (I love this book so much that it is my second year reading it🤭). For each day there is a inspirational saying or passage for your day that is related to yoga.

One of the passages for this week was “the breathe is the gateway to consciousness”. This reminded me of an experience I had with a patient this past week. I have been treating a patient with relaxation therapy. This has consisted of progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, breathing techniques, mindfulness and the body scan technique. After our first session, she said “it finally feels like all this is real and actually happening”. To give you a background on this patient- she is a dancer who just recently has experienced a stroke. She is now unable to feel the right side of her body, unable to walk independently and has lost a lot of strength in her hands to the point where she is unable to write. All of these are extremely drastic changes in ones life and I can completely understand how it has been such a shock for her and has not felt like reality.

Once she took a step back and focused on the present moment by using her breath, she was able to gain insight and feel as if this was all reality. In her situation, as well as any situation in life, I have realized the importance of using the breath to assist us. Our breath is always available to us, we just don’t always intend to place our focus on it.

Today or any day when you feel like your thoughts are scattered or your feeling the need to control… take a deep breath in and then elongate your exhale as the breath of letting go. Repeat this 3 to 5 times.

This will help you to release the stale, negative energy you may be holding in so you can make space for new, fresh, and positive energy to come into your body.

♥