Pain, fear and stress are what prevent people from connecting to the breath. Think about it. When you are afraid, you are frozen with fear. With pain, we stop moving and become rigid. Emotional stress causes us to build up walls through contracting away from the energy by holding the breath. The pain you have accumulated throughout your life is directly related to your pattern of breathing, which has a signature posture, or physical expression. 

So, as with the mechanics of respiration, if we understand pain and its value, we can use it to our advantage. If pain took us away from our center, we can follow it back. It is the trail of breadcrumbs we left behind, a lifeline. The best part about it is that we can override pain with pressure. 

Pressure fibers are larger in diameter than pain fibers. When we apply pressure to a painful area, the brain reads only the pressure because the signals move faster. Pressure beats pain to the finish line, so to speak. People’s automatic response to pain is to hold the breath, so some retraining is required. 

Putting positive energy into the body releases negative energy. This is called a healing crisis. In order to heal, we must face the past we have been repressing. This is liberating because the next step is to let it go, exhaling it away. We are lighter and freer. This creates space for health and renewal. 

Patience is the key. You can’t rush the melting process. You can assist it, but solid will turn to liquid when that right temperature is reached. With tissue that has become cold due to chest breathing, it takes time to rev up the diaphragm to the point where it is consistently heating all the cells in the body. Where breathing with the chest is like having a space heater in one room of a house, using the diaphragm is like turning on the furnace. With consistent effort, an overall increase in temperature is achieved, and systems begin to function properly.

My motto when teaching Block Therapy is “your breath is your guide”. Block Therapy derives its name from the fact that you lie on a block made of bamboo or elm to facilitate the practice of Fluid Isometrics. It is a therapeutic tool, specifically designed to fit into the contours of the body. Proper instruction helps you to get past the initial fear response and begin to accept the pain. 

The biggest challenge is to get through  the surface reaction. This is the edge where we first encounter pain. It’s as if we have created a wall within to protect the soft, fleshy parts of us that feel. It’s easy to find, if you press into the tissue deeply enough. The belly is a great place to start, because the collapse of the rib cage into the core will have created tremendous internal stress, so pain is close to the surface. There is also a lot of negative emotion trapped in this area. 

What makes Block Therapy so universally accessible is that it puts you in charge of the process. You are shown how to get into the position slowly and safely, how to connect to the breath, and how to navigate through the sensations. If something hurts so much that you can’t breathe in a relaxed way, that is the indicator that you need to ease up a bit, and you are guided through this. Fear vanishes because there is nothing unknown. Pain becomes a sensation that we learn to love. How awesome is that! 

If you are feeling stuck, in pain, frustrated and have lost hope in any way, try a persuasive approach to feed, heal and energize your body. That is what Block Therapy does; healing, exercise and meditation all built into a system that you do lying down, even on a bed. It’s okay to be comfortable and restful while you make changes. See for yourself and join our private Facebook community to see what others have to say.

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Breathe & Believe