This is a rough draft... still working on final)
Practical Guide ToTaking Every Thought Captive
This is just a quick note I made on mindfulness breathing. There is so much out there on the web but I wanted something simple that I could give to people to explain the process. As time allows, I will add more explanation to this process.
The practice is to watch your breath. Breathing in and out. Nothing special... just your normal pace. You want to just notice the air. How it smells. How it feels. Cold/hot. Then here is the easy thing to remember.... for one minute (to begin with) make it the only job you have to do... make sure that nothing flies in our out of your nose. That is all. It is harder than you think. Other thoughts will come up as soon as you realize it... take your attention back to your sole job of making sure that nothing goes in or out of your nose.
Now.. you might not notice a change in yourself at first.. but after practicing this a month you will notice that your stress level has reduced greatly and that you have a more pleasant outlook on life. After practicing for a minute you might want to increase your time spent doing this exercise... it will help the more you do it.
Good luck.
HEALING THE PAINFUL EMOTIONS AND MEMORIES
Another aspect of mindfulness breathing is that it can take the powerful negative emotions connected with memories and render them neutral. Thus, taking away the sting and the bondage that past hurts hold us in.
Negative enotions connect themselves to our hurts, betrayals fears, rejection etc.
As negative emotions arise in our soul if we observe them and do mindfulness breathing it will disconnect those emotions from those memories. This can be a little tricky and practice but can be easily learned. As the memory and the emotions come up do not let the thoughts advance and roll over and over in your mind. Pinpoint that first emotion that you feel and just observe it. Sometimes we can actually feel the emotion and our bodies somewhere. Perhaps in the pit of our stomach. Sometimes in our chest. Just observe those feelings. Do not let the story of the memory progress. Don't assign blame. Don't plot revenge. Just simply observe that first emotion. And breathe. Focus on that initial memory and emotion. And continue to breathe. Don't let that memory progressed into a full movie. Just observe that first scene. More times than not you will feel the emotion behind that memory simply dissipate. Stay with that memory for a few more minutes doing mindfulness breathing and enjoy that memory without the toxic emotions and hurt. I will not say that you are totally healed of that emotion. It might take a few more times of this memory and the hurt arising in your soul and doing my phone this breathing in order for those memories and your emotions to be healed. But I promise that if you learn this practice with your wounded emotions and memories, you will find relief.
PHYSICAL PAIN
You can practice the same mindfulness breathing with physical pain as well. I have used mindfulness breathing with physical pain and have found some good results as well. There are reasons for this. But I do not have time to go into this right now.
How this works
Our minds and our emotions are tools that are designed to protect us. When our minds determine that something has the potential to harm us we learn to avoid it. We do that by attaching negative emotions to that situation, or, that person, that memory. As time progresses, we continue to reinforce those emotions towards that threat.
Overtime, it is not the situation, the person, or the memory that we are avoiding... It is the activation of those emotions that are attached to those things. If the emotions were not attached to the situation, we would face it like any other thing in our life. An example of going 2 an event where we would not know anyone can calls us great anxiety because of the emotions that we have attached to the thought of being all alone and not knowing anyone. Those emotions will be stirred up in US and we would be tempted to avoid that situation, drink, and any number of other ways to deal with those negative emotions. Believe it or not there are some people who do not experience negative emotions when it comes to being in this kind of situation. They do not experience the emotional turmoil that some of us do. You can bring up to mind any number of situations that produce an emotional response in you. Perhaps it's boredom. Some people try to avoid the emotion of boredom by eating, binge watching TV, or sleeping. While other people when they experience boredom they might find a productive thing to do or a good book to read.
What mindfulness breathing does, it causes us to look directly at that negative emotion that has attached itself to a situation. If we stay with that negative emotion while doing mindfulness breathing we will take the pain and sting out of that negative emotion as it is attached to that situation. It might not happen the first time. It might take many times of doing this mindfulness breathing focusing on those negative emotions. Before we see and easing of those emotions.
As we use this practice of mindfulness breathing it will detach the negative emotions from situations, people, and memories. It is amazing when we realize that isn't it is not the situations that we are avoiding, but the emotions that are attached to the situations. And as those negative emotions are removed from those situations, we can truly enjoy or at least be neutral towards those situations.
I have tried so many things over the years to deal with negative emotions including depression. I have tried medications. I have tried natural remedies. I have tried exercise. I have tried EFT. I have tried tapping. And I realize that all these things perhaps at work to some degree but the result that I have wanted from these practices is the relief from these negative emotions. I wanted to avoid these negative emotions being triggered. Some of these practices just pushed down those negative emotions even deeper so I could avoid them. But they would always come back. As I have practiced consistently mindfulness breathing in dealing with these emotions, I can truly see that I am detaching these negative emotions two neutral situations, memories, and people. Thus allowing me to experience those things without the negative emotions attached. Anger, jealousy, loneliness, rejection, depression and any other negative emotions are not needed because they are no longer a threat.
If might not help immediately in the moment. Sometimes it does. But, it is like making a deposit in the bank... you will see the benefits tomorrow, next week, etc from the breathing exercises you do today.
