Listen to the breath

I wrote this on my old website and thought it would be good to revive it so that it doesn't get lost again.

When we breath out there is a gentle wave that flows through the body and if we consciously "let go" of the breath we will feel it. Our body weight settles down and we feel relaxed. The problem is that most of us don't take any time to experience this "letting go" and the breath very often is either held or closely controlled.
Using breathing exercises can help us expand our lung capacity and our vitality. Meditation can help us be very conscious of our breathing pattern and how it changes. Yoga makes us aware of the body and the breath together as we hold a posture and then relax into it.

Therapeutic touch helps us to focus on what is happening in a specific place. Once the attention is caught, the letting go of the breath under the hand can create profound relaxation and energy flow in that place.

Shiatsu uses two hands. One hand may be placed in a reference place. That is somewhere on the body that can relax and breathe and the other hand is placed some distance away. The gap in between is where the breath is encouraged to help flow. Using various breathing out techniques we can change the state of energy between the therapists hands from tense to relaxed or from a feeling of emptiness to one of fullness.

Thea Bailey is a Shiatsu practitioner who has worked with cancer sufferers for about 15 years, partly at the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. She uses this breathing method to help patients re-connect with the whole of themselves. Because the technique is very gentle it is well suited to those who are extremely ill as well as those who just want to increase their awareness and vitality.

I was drawn to write a poem after working with Thea:

Swinging Pendulums
Sometimes the pendulum stops
Not in the middle, at rest
But at the end of its swing.

Is it full
Jitsu?
Is it non-responsive
Kyo?

It needs to move
It wants to move.

The moving , transforming force
Letting go and starting anew
Is the breath.

To bring breath to the pendulum
Is to move it the tiniest amount
So that it realises and releases

Its potential for transformation.