At some point in our lives, all of us fall into patterns of thinking obsessively about the issues that concern us. When that happens, we tend to go over and over the same thoughts and feelings. Obsessive thinking seldom if ever brings about any true resolution of the matter. Our thinking capacity is only useful to a certain point and after that we’re only recycling what we’ve already gone over. Circular thinking creates a vicious cycle by causing our anxiety to escalate, which intensifies our obsessive thought patterns. Circular thinking becomes a trap that keeps us stuck in our heads. It keeps us frozen inside because it prevents us from going through the internal processes that enable us to grow and so we continue to play out the same dramas.

There are different levels of activity operating within our minds here. Powerful currents of memory, thought and emotion operate beneath the surface of our conscious awareness. These forces are the drivers that create the underlying themes that play out in our lives and shape our personality. And then there’s a level of surface thought and reactive feeling that run through our conscious mind. Most people live their lives caught up in the surface drama, but they never really get to the underlying source of what’s driving them.

I make concerted effort to be aware of my own internal processes. I’ll force myself to stop when I notice myself going over and over the same thoughts. I’ll ask myself, "What’s the deepest feeling behind all the drama or mental chatter?" And then I start breathing into any feelings I’m able to access at the time. This practice enables me to get to the source of the underlying issue. It gives me access to the deeper levels of thoughts and feelings along with the memories of experiences pertaining to past unresolved issues. Pieces start coming together as I begin to recognize the connection between my current situation and the unresolved issues from earlier parts of my life. Breathing into the feelings activates a healing intelligence within the body-mind that enables me to digest the thoughts, feelings and experiences. This process enables me to bring consciousness into parts of my psyche that have been playing out limiting or destructive patterns in my life. Working with this practice has made me conscious of patterns of behavior that I was previously oblivious to, and has allowed me to change the way that I move through the world.

Breathing into the anxiety or other feelings that lie underneath the anxious mental chatter helps to break the pattern. I have to remind myself to do the practice at times, because it’s easy to get caught up in all the drama. Accessing the deeper feelings opens up a flow within that keeps me in motion. I’m able to work through issues faster and it keeps me moving forward. This practice will bring about powerful change. However, the process becomes exponentially more powerful when it is combine it with other modalities or processes such as deep tissue massage, healing sessions and vision quests.