In the years preceding 9/11 our economy grew at a steady rate. Many people in our society were doing very well financially and enjoyed a high standard of living. After 9/11 things began to fall apart. Many have lost their jobs and are finding it difficult to keep up with expenses. People are afraid to spend money, and now businesses that use to thrive are now struggling to get by.

Financial difficulties can leave us feeling really vulnerable and evoke painful feelings of inadequacy. The uncertainty of not knowing of how you are going to make it financially can be very anxiety provoking. It has caused many of us to become fearful in response to the changes taking place in our world. Some people have lived with these kinds of fears through out their lives.

We have a tendency to contract in reaction to chronically stressful events. Our bodies tighten and become rigid and our minds become constricted. Ongoing stress can cause the expression of our consciousness to become distorted. When we fail to process the stressful events, we freeze up inside and that causes us to become stuck internally and in our lives. Overtime we internalize the stress to the point to where it becomes ingrained into our makeup. Eventually the stress starts to express itself through our physical body in the form of illness and disease.

During some of the more difficult periods of my life, I discovered a process that enabled me to work productively with the stress. At times when I’m feeling anxious, fearful or stressed out, I take a moment to become more aware of what I’m feeling and to notice where the feelings are the strongest in my body. Then I begin to breathe softly and deeply as I center my awareness in the middle of the feelings.

Breathing into the feelings and emotions initiates a process that enables you to digest and assimilate your internal responses to life. You will often find that the feelings and emotions are more intense in the beginning, but as you continue to breathe into them, they will tend to soften and dissipate. Sometimes you will begin to breathe into a feeling and it will lead you to other feelings. And at times you may experience a warmth or tingling sensation. Continue to follow the feelings and sensations as they emerge.

The main focus here is to be fully present as you breathe into the feelings. Allow the feelings to be what they are and just continue to breathe into what you feel. To the best of your ability, get into the middle of the feelings, because the process becomes much more powerful and effective this way. Do not intentionally try to do visualizations (such as sending light) because it will only interfere with the process. At times you will see images and have thoughts emerge and that’s okay. Just continue to keep your focus inside the feelings as you softly breathe into them. Keep your focus on a kinesthetic level.

Sometimes feelings can seem intense and overwhelming and at other times you may feel that the emotions are stuck because they do not seem to be moving. Some of the heavier kinds of feelings such as those associated with depression can be more difficult to digest and therefore take longer to process. Many of the same anxious and other painful feelings can surface repeatedly when were confronted with ongoing stressful situations that tend to trigger survival issues. That’s why it’s all the more important to learn patience and to continue with the process of breathing through what we feel in response to the events of our lives.

I found it really difficult to establish my practice in the beginning and that caused me to experience a lot of fear around survival. At times I wondered how I would make it. During the really slow times I would tend to experience a lot fear and anxiety flooding through my body. It was during that time that I learned to breathe into the feelings and emotions that I was experiencing. The feelings would gradually dissipate as I continued to breathe into them. Sometimes I would work through the feelings within a few minutes and other times the feelings could persist for hours. As the feelings began to digest or work their way through me, I would often begin to experience a sense of warmth and calm.

I also carried a lot of tension in my upper back from the strain of trying to hold everything together. The tension in my upper back had formed more of a shell or armor that had a much more dense quality to it. The muscles in that part of my back were always very tight. It took me a lot longer to get that to really open up.

The calm that I experience as a result of this practice makes it much easier for me to handle the stresses that occur in my life. At times I could be in the midst of chaos and feel that things are falling apart around me, but I will still have this sense of being connected to a greater power. It allows me to relax into what’s happening and do what needs to be done.

I noticed that when I do this practice, a lot of things began to open and start moving within and about me. All the frozen stressful emotions that I’ve held inside of me begin to digest, and that allows me to come to a place of inner resolve. Instead of being in an internal state of conflict where I fight and resist what is happening, I become more adaptive which allows me to respond in more productive ways. Working with this practice has caused me to become much more resilient. I tend to bounce back more quickly when I encounter setbacks. The creativity opens up and begins to flow within me and I start coming up with solutions. At times I will have flashes of insight or strong instinctual feelings that give me a sense of what I need to be doing. I feel that doing this practice causes my brain to become more responsive. It also helps to create a greater interplay or working relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds.

It’s definitely not a "cure-all" but I do find that there’s a magical quality to this practice. When I work with this practice, I notice a lot more synchronicities happening in my life. Doors begin to open and things have an interesting way of manifesting. In many ways I find that the things I need come to me more readily, and that’s probably because I’m clearing much of what stands in the way of it happening. It’s not a quick fix though; this is a process that I work with daily. It involves really paying attention and, accessing the feelings and emotions that are operating beneath the surface. It’s an opportunity for me to continue learning and growing. It’s a discipline and a process of spiritual development.