Here is a simple technique for emotional processing. You can do this at home, work, or at the
playground. It just takes a few minutes a day. The idea is to tune into what you are feeling physically, the physical sensations you are experiencing at this moment in your body. Then, using your conscious attention, you relax every aspect of your body from any discomfort or tension that you maybe feeling. Relaxation is a very under rated state of being. In fact only limited healing can occur is the body if not in a relaxed state.
This exercise should be performed ten minutes a day, though you can break this up to ten, one minutes sessions a day if that is more convenient for you. First. check into your body from head to toe. Notice what you are feeling in every part of your body. For example, are you eyes itchy, jaws clenched, shoulders tight, notice what your hands are doing, how your belly feels, notice your skin and the muscles throughout your whole body.
Next, while paying attention to all the physical sensation you are presently experiencing, take a deep breath in while contriving to feel your bodily sensations more intensely than they are. You do this so your conscious mind really knows what exactly needs relaxing.
Next exhale, and while you are letting go of the air in your lungs, you let go of all the tensions and sensations in your body that you have been focusing on in that moment.
Repeat this process, breathing into all the tension in your body, accepting everything you are feeling as you accept the air into your lungs and then consciously relaxing it with your exhalation. Do this for about one minute and then recheck into your body to notice what you are feeling.
Some people find it helpful, to breath in for a count of two, and breath out for a count of four so that every time they engage their tension with their inhalation, they relax the tension twice as much with the exhalation. In this way the tension is ratcheted down with each respiration. You can assess the effectiveness of your Daoyin breathing by noticing how easily you can exhale a full forceful breath and how much tension is still present in your body when you recheck. For example, it you try to exhale and only a little puff of breath comes out, you are still holding onto your breath and your tension. When you are able to exhale a big uncontrolled breath you are tapping into your tension. Remember this is Daoyin breathing, not yoga breathing. Most yoga breathing exercises are slow, measured exhalations and inhalations. Letting go of bodily tension is all about non-control, so the Daoyin breath is a let it all out, uncontrolled exhalation.
Any bodily tension or discomfort is a result of a non-conscious process. When one is completely conscious, one would never hold onto unnecessary tension in the body. Breathing is the one thing we can do both consciously and non-consciously. The act of breathing while consciously trying to relax the body can tap into the non-conscious tensions held deep within.
Daoyin breathing can be used to access old, long held tension too. To do this simply think of an issue, event or an emotion that pushes a button for you and brings up an emotional response. Notice what physical sensations you feel when you think of the particular issue. Breath into it to enhance the feeling, and let it go with an uncontrolled exhale, continuously for one minute, and then check into how your body feels when you think of the issue again.
Any issue in your life can be cleared of the emotional charge being held in your body. For example, falling off your bike when you where eight years old, breaking up with your boyfriend when you where sixteen, or the death of grandparent or loved one. Issues such as family, relationships, jobs, money, and even pure emotions such as grief, fear, anger, worry or resentment all provoke a particular flinch or tension pattern in the body. With emotional clearing using Daoyin, or other effective techniques, the body relaxes and functions better.