Читать книгу Positive Thinking: Everything you have always known about positive thinking but were afraid to put into practice - Vera Peiffer, Vera Peiffer - Страница 14

Are you finding it difficult to make your belly come out as you breathe in?

With your eyes open, try to make your belly round by pushing it out using your muscles. Leave your hand on your stomach so you know what it feels like. Now, combine pushing your muscles out with inhaling. Finally, try inhaling on its own again, making breathing the power that pushes out your belly.

Are you finding that you are not feeling relaxed at the end of the exercise?

Are you very worried about something? Any problems you have may well interfere with your exercise, making it more difficult to concentrate. This is normal. Do not resist these interfering thoughts, because resistance creates tension. Just say to yourself, ‘I can feel that I’m worried about something – this is OK. I will go back to worrying immediately after finishing this exercise. I resume my exercise now.’ Say this to yourself every time you find worrying thoughts interrupting your exercise.

Are you trying too hard to relax? Don’t try to be perfect. This exercise will definitely not solve all your problems; it merely helps to take the edge off any physical tension you may be under, so don’t expect to be comatose by the end of it! Doing this exercise is like taking a step back from everyday life, not more, not less.

Note: The harder you try to relax the less you can do it.

Are you angry at yourself for not relaxing better? Do you find it unbearable not to be the supreme champion at everything you are doing? Are you pushing yourself very hard at everything you attempt? If you have to answer yes to these questions, then it is high time you treated yourself better.

At the moment, you are over-critical and impatient, in other words, you are nasty to yourself. Don’t be! You deserve a break and you have the right to make mistakes and have faults, just like everyone else. Treat yourself like a little baby: with much love and gentleness. Now try the exercise again. You will see that you are doing better this time.

You can do this exercise anywhere, on the bus, on the tube, while you are waiting at the dentist’s, when you are exhausted and don’t have time for a nap, when you are stressed. Breathing properly will help take the edge off anxiety, recharge your batteries and enable you to think clearly.

Breathing deeply means that the entire lungs (rather than just the top halves) are filled with air and that, as a result, more oxygen gets into the blood. Oxygen is needed by the brain to function properly. Furthermore, deep breathing loosens and relaxes the belly muscles and the solar plexus, which is the area around your stomach where a great number of nerves come together. Relaxation of the solar plexus means that your inner organs can work properly. By breathing deeply, you are creating physical harmony.