Breathing Meditation for Centering and Self-Healing

One of the first things you need to do when you are choosing to fully engage in a self-healing practice is to quiet your body and mind, bringing your body into a relaxed state that allows healing to occur. Getting to this relaxed state is the challenge and the opportunity. As I discuss at greater length in my book, The Root of All Healing, you cannot heal by will alone. In other words, you can’t make healing happen. You open to healing by allowing it to happen. You use your will to stay true to your commitment to heal by engaging fully in whatever discipline (treatment, practice or therapy) you have chosen to further your wellness.

Some years ago, when I was in immense pain—too much pain to even provide sound healing for myself—I asked the Divine for a means of healing that would help me alleviate my intense pain enough to employ a more robust healing solution. This is the meditation that came to me and I share it with you today

Don’t let the simplicity of this exercise fool you. It is in the attention to your body, energetic expansion and oxygenation that healing is occurring. Many of us need more oxygen in order to heal. We tend to breathe in a shallow manner and as a result the cells of your body don’t get the oxygen they need for optimal functioning.

Breathe as though the breath is a feather.
This is another key to the exercise. When your body is in great pain, it often likes to be treated gently. So imagine that your breath is like the softest feather you have ever felt. That feather is gently caressing your cells as you breathe. Notice how quickly your body relaxes in response to this feather-light touch of breath.

Begin by noticing your breath.
Notice the air flowing through you and caressing you. Notice where it flows easily through your body and where it seems to stop. Do you breathe slowly, quickly, deeply, shallowly? Free yourself from any judgment about how you are breathing. Do not try to change or control it. Simply notice.

Breathe from the center of your body to just a few inches outside your body.
Fill everything with the breath of air. Feel your whole body engage in the process of breathing. As you do this meditation, if any place in your body feels tight and unresponsive, simply wrap those cells in breath, allowing them to absorb breath whenever they are ready.

Focus on the lungs and work your way down your body.
Bring your attention to the top of your lungs, where they attach at the shoulder blades. Breathe into the front of the top of your lungs, then add the sides, then the back. While still breathing into the upper portion of the lungs, focus into the lower half of your lungs, breathing into the front, sides and back.

Breathe into the solar plexus, while still breathing into your lungs, breathing into the front, sides, and back.

Take the breath further into the area of the digestive organs, breathing once again into the front, sides and back.

Now breathe down into the pelvic bowl, repeating the directional pattern. Take your awareness down into each section of your legs until you reach the tip of your toes.

Once you have reached your toes, travel up the spine to the shoulders.
Travel your awareness to the base of your spine, and slowly breathe up each vertebra until you have reached the shoulder area.

Breathe into your arms and hands, then return to the shoulders and travel up your spine into the neck and base of the skull, then fill the neck front, sides and back.

Last – breathe into the head. Breathe into your mouth, ears, nose, eyes, front, side and back, finishing with the top of your head.

Breathe into your entire body for several breaths, feeling every cell expand and open as you breathe several breaths.
Whenever you feel ready, surrender to the breath and allow the breath to breathe you.

When you are feeling nourished and relaxed, return awareness to your physical body.
Once again feel the air moving in and out of your lungs. Take a few deep breaths and exhale through your mouth, blowing the air outward. Feel your body. Feel your body sitting or lying against a surface. Wiggle your fingers or toes and slowly bring your
consciousness to a greater state of alertness. When you are ready, slowly open your eyes.