Your breath is a powerful tool for emotional regulation and mental health. Whether it's a few deep breaths in the moment, a 5-minutes breathing session, or a conscious connected breathwork practice, mindful breathing can make a huge difference in your life.
During NICABM’s Advanced Master Program on the Treatment of Trauma: Strategies to Treat Patients Trapped in the Freeze Response (June 17th - 21st), Professor Ruth Linius emphasized the importance of breathing to help people trapped in the freeze response. She explained that blood oxygen saturation drops during the freeze state and recommended slow circular breathing (without pause) to re-oxygenate the blood accompanied by slow small movements to break free from the freeze response. Slow movements may be moving your eyes (without moving the head) from side to side.
As a psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Reich (1) observed that patients tended to hold their breath when resisting the full and free expression of their thoughts and feelings. He concluded that psychological resistances and defenses are associated with restricted breathing. Marion Woodman came to the same conclusion: “For me, body work is soul work, and the imagination is the key to connecting both. Most of us keep our breath as shallow as possible because the eruption of feeling is too intense if we inhale deeply.” (2) Psychotherapist Alexander Lowen (3) wrote “… it is through breathing deeply and fully that can one summon the energy for a more spirited and spiritual life”. Willhelm Reich noted that thriving in life is closely related to the optimal use of one's life-force energy, which is expressed through breath. One can often observe the lack of energy in the breath of a person who is severely depressed.
When we’re anxious or feel threatened, we tend to hold our breath. This can become a habit, creating a breath-holding pattern that signals to our body that it’s not safe, which reinforces anxiety. Try incorporating short breathwork practices like box-breathing into your daily routine: breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold for 4. Repeat a few times until you feel a shift in your body.
Written for @southernafrica
Image credit: Vanessa Lemen
References:
(1) Wilhelm Reich (1949) Character analysis.
(2) Marion Woodman (1993) Conscious Femininity, p. 16-17.
(3) Alexander Lowen (1976) Bioenergetics, p. 66
#jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #unconscious #consciousness #collectiveunconscious #archetypes #archetypalpatterns