Mind & Body Integration

Breathwork

“Breath” means Life

Control your breath, Control you life

We need food and water to sustain life, but more essential to us than either is the breath, the real food of life.  It has been said that we are what we eat, but if you change the way you breathe, you change the person you are.  For example, if you are frightened your breath will become shallow.  We respond to the breath and the breath responds to us.  Conscious control of the breathe is an essential part of living.  The breath contains life force, which determines the physical health and the psychological well-being of a person.  Various breathing techniques can be used to balance, energize, modify and heal. 

Almost every spiritual discipline has multiple breathing practices, confirming the link of controlling your breath to your experience of wholeness.  We will work together to discover which practices work best for your unique and individual needs.

Meditations

Meditation is an easy practice which can produce significant results. It can be tailored in many different ways to suite your particular lifestyle. You do not need to be an advanced spiritual practitioner to be able to meditate. You only need to acquire a few tools, make a commitment to consistent practice, and have a clear intention.

Mindful Movement

Mindful movement refers to moving your body while placing your attention and focus on really noticing and feeling what your body does throughout those movements. To maintain focused attention simply means to observe what you are experiencing, without judgement,  reducing distractions and investigating the quality of the movement, rather than using force. It becomes less about exercise and more about curiosity and open-mindedness.

In mindful movement we are practicing being aware of our whole body.  We aren’t bringing awareness to the body so we can fix it, it’s about simply noticing what is present right here, right now. Mindful movement can just be part of your usual daily activities yet done with a touch more awareness. Next time you sit down or get up; brush your teeth; dry yourself with a towel after a shower – try and bring awareness to the movements and see if you experience them differently.

Body Awareness

Many experiments show just how powerfully your body influences your thoughts; and your gestures and posture can affect your judgements.  The judgements we make from moment to moment can be significantly affected by the state of our bodies at the time that we make them.  Simply altering your relationship to your body can profoundly improve your life.  Instead of your body acting as an amplifier, it can become a sensitive emotional radar; an early warning system that alerts you to unhappiness, anxiety and stress almost before they arise.

You first have to learn how to pay attention, in detail, to those parts of the body that are the source of the signals.  The simple act of awareness helps to diffuse tension.  In that focus, the mind begins to reconnect fully with the body as countless networks in the brain begin to revive and strengthen themselves.

By making your internal experiences primary and external experiences secondary, you can develop a “flow” which deepens body relaxation, releases somatic tensions, and engages and expresses unrecognized emotions that may be stored in your tissues.  This process of release sets the foundation for the development of authenticity.  It is a journey of self-awareness which is a journey into your body.  When you go deeply into your body, you discover that the body, the mind and the spirit are one.

Mindfulness Programs

Learning to navigate the connection between our physical bodies, our emotional states and our mental focus is what gives us power and makes us free.  Mindfulness means “awareness”.   We can learn how to discern and be more aware of which activities help or harm us.  By following a program which focuses on integrating body and mind more effectively,  long-standing suffering can be eased; a complicated life can become more manageable.  

Mindfulness gains its power through repetition.  We can work together through a specific, yet flexible program, which synthesizes breath, meditation, exercise, body awareness, and mindful movement into various categories.  This breakdown makes it easier to actually make the needed changes in your life which previously have eluded you.