Simple Breath Awareness: An exercise to fight stress, anxiety and insomnia
He writes on his website...
For the brain, integration means that separated areas with their unique functions, in the skull and throughout the body, become linked to each other through synaptic connections. These integrated linkages enable more intricate functions to emerge—such as insight, empathy, intuition, and morality. A result of integration is kindness, resilience, and health.You can use this simple breath awareness exercise from the classic text, “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali," in a therapy session to help the client direct their attention to internal states and balance their autonomic nervous system.
The following practice worked well for my client, Sue, who had difficulty focusing her thoughts and trouble falling asleep. After learning this practice, she was able to practice breath awareness on her own at home and eventually eliminated her dependence on sleeping medication.
Use this script with your clients, and remember to practice it yourself to learn first-hand about the benefits.
Start by focusing on the place in your body where you can hear your breath.
(Pause for one minute)
Now, notice any movement of your body as you breathe.
(Pause)
Next, feel the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils, so your entire awareness becomes focused on the nostrils.
(Pause)
How do you feel? Do you notice a difference between how you felt before the breath awareness exercises and how you feel now?
Remember clients are not instructed to change their breathing pattern at all, although it may change spontaneously as the practice continues.
This blog was brought to life by PESI speaker Joann Lutz. She has been training mental health professionals to bring trauma-informed yoga into their healing work nationally and internationally for the past six years, bringing this work to universities, conferences, hospitals, ashrams and yoga centers.
Joann Lutz, MSW, LICSW, E-RYT, C-IAYT, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists, an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance, and a Certified Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist.
She is also certified in EMDR and Psychosynthesis. She had a private practice in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she incorporated trauma-informed yoga into groups for combat veterans, clients recovering from psychiatric disorders, and others. She has practiced and taught Integral Yoga for over 35 years, and was a guest teacher at Omega Institute; Harbin Hot Springs; Rowe Conference Center and Sivananda Yoga Retreat, Bahamas, among other venues.
Joann completed 40 hours of trauma-sensitive yoga training with The Trauma Center in Boston, MA. She has been training mental health professionals to bring trauma-informed yoga into their practices nationally and internationally for the past 7 years, bringing this work to universities, conferences, hospitals, ashrams and yoga centers. Her CEU course, “Bringing Yoga into Social Work Practice,” was published by the National Association of Social Workers, Ma. Chapter, in 2014.
Her paper, "Classical Yoga Postures as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Autonomic Nervous System Regulation" was published in Proceedings of the Yoga and Psyche Conference (2014), by Cambridge Scholars Press. Her book, Trauma Healing in the Yoga Zone, is forthcoming from Handspring Publishers.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Joann Lutz receives compensation as a consultant, workshop presenter and trainer. She receives royalties as a published author. Joann Lutz receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Joann Lutz is a member of the National Association of Social Workers.
