Tension in the form of mental strain, muscle tension, or other painful scenarios all cause intense levels of unease, stress and pain. Finding ways to alleviate that pain through decompression and focus techniques have huge positive effects on our bodies and minds.
Begin by understanding your own personal characteristics by identifying yourself as an introvert or extrovert and the ways we naturally decompress and recharge on a daily basis.
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By acknowledging and identifying your own personal characteristics, you give yourself the freedom to choose a daily decompression method that works for you personally. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. Some methods however are powerful in their own unique way and can reach both types of people. A powerful yet simple practice for decompression that I have found to accommodate most people are what I like to call “Ocean Breathes”. You don’t go as deep as you can using other practices but it’s a quick and effortless way to connect the mind, body and spirit with one another so that you are in alignment with yourself and present to your experience.
The Ocean Breathes Technique is a tool that I use in the Biko Method to get you into and out of the process. For this reason I have laid out a brief description to explain how it’s done along with a few other practices that you may want to consider trying out on your own outside of the Biko Method. Daily meditation practices help with decompression and assist with levels of stress, anxiety, overwhelm and so much more. It also aids in helping us to address and lower our mind chatter. Giving us access to a deeper part of us where intuition, insights and instinct reside. This allows us to think before we act as opposed to reacting from an unconscious place. Conscious decisions are always more desirable than unconscious reactions. Take your time and choose a technique that works best for you.
This technique is a fun yet simple approach to quieting the mind and getting it primed for the Biko Method process. It’s also helpful in allowing all of the changes to settle and align within us after the session is complete.
Simply lay down in a comfortable spot where you will not be disturbed and close your eyes. In the Biko Method I always start with 3 deep breaths. In through the nose and out with the mouth.
After taking 3 deep breaths you are ready to begin the Ocean Breathes. Breathing normally in whichever way feels most comfortable to you, take an inhalation (It does not have to be through the nose). On your inhalation picture yourself lying on a warm beach with the sand beneath your back and the bottom of your feet facing the ocean. When you inhale, imagine a small wave breaking just below your feet and then the water trickling all the way up the back of your legs and up your back. All the way to your head. Then on the exhale breathing normally, watch the water get pulled back into the ocean. Down your back. Down your legs. Away from your body and towards the ocean where it gets ready for another wave to break. You as well prepare yourself for your next inhalation. On your next inhalation you imagine the exact same experience watching the wave make its way up your back to your head and then on your exhalation the water makes its way back to the ocean just as before.
You have this experience for a total of 12 breaths and that’s it. The 12 Ocean Breathes are a fantastic way to prepare yourself and your subconscious for using the Biko Method.
