Stress Management Max Lafser, a popular California Minister
tells a story about a woman in Galveston, Texas who uses a canister vacuum cleaner to
clean out her parakeet cage and accidentally sucks the always cheerfully singing bird up
the hose. She retrieves it and its still alive but very dirty so she takes it to the
sink and runs ice cold tap water over it to wash all the dust off. The bird is
soaked through so she gets a hair drier and with VERY warm air,
blow dries it, very dry. A newspaper reporter hears of the incident and locates the woman
for a story. He asks her how the bird is doing. She replies Hes doing
fine but he never moves or sings anymore; just sits and stares at the
wall. FINE for some stands for Frozen, Irritable, Numb and Empty. I now understand that in times
of extreme stress and confusion, I can always go back to my breath. Unless you are maybe a little like that poor canary and have been scared out of it. Many breathing blocks become permanent unless you remove them. UNDERSTANDING STRESS DOESNT HANDLE IT Grade school children are often stressed out and it seems they are uncontrollable, neurotic, abused, evil or whatever society decides to label that which it cannot understand or wisely manage. A first grade teacher and I joined forces to teach 16 sick with colds, frenetic and energetic Oakland California 6- and 7-year-olds how to breathe better. We made a game of it. After the teacher got the handle of it he continued on his own. The breathing exercise is working a lot like a meditation; without the dogma, jargon and new age fluff associated with meditation. See calming classroom chaos. I was privileged to assist several members of the Inmate Services staff at a local county jail. I taught my Learn How To Breathe Better for stress management approach which was used as a container for ways to help control anger, drug and alcohol cravings. Both maximum and minimum security inmate groups were very receptive and willing to do ongoing breathing exercises. Inmate Services personnel were delighted with the results. Some believe prison and jail should be for education. Some for punishment. I look forward to a positive response to my proposal to any jail facility to train the inmate Services Staff in my approach to ones internal energy control and management. I want to train other prison staff members as well as public school teachers, and am looking for contacts that understand and appreciate the power of the breath. A word of caution. There are many breathing exercises that can calm. The extended exhale for instance. Some can actually level-out one person and over-amp another. But in the long run most will suppress the effortless in-breaths that are the gateway to deepest peace within. MORE STRESS? We encounter emotional, physical, mental, and environmental stresses daily. They can be exhilarating, strengthening, and clarifying, or damaging and destructive. Burnout, fatigue, shame, guilt, lack of control and helplessness, epidemic-scale autoimmune disease, food allergies, chemical hypersensitivitys, mental weakness, and confusion plague our society. How you breathe impacts all of these. During a breathing session with Mike, I received more release of tension and a stronger sense of inner peace than I ever dreamed possible. Ellen Heathcote., Retired former manager of a California State Agency Responding, rather than reacting, is a primary goal of Optimal Breathing. Strategies for handling distress often tempt us to rely on cognitive or thinking processes. When we try to substitute information for experience and intuition, we can become overloaded with choices and separated from our inner selves. Breathing in spirit inspirating really is the link to body-mind-spirit integration. STRESS RELIEF "If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. "In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on." "As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden." "So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can." "Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short Enjoy it! STRESS RELIEF TECHNIQUE Almost any stressful situation, including panic attacks and quite possibly heart fibrillation, can be aided by 1. Extending the exhale to three to ten times the length of a natural inhale and then letting a deeper longer natural breathing reflex inhale occur effortlessly. Most exercises neglect the latter reflexive portion and lacking it over time can cause muscular constriction and eventual loss or inhibition of optimal deeper natural reflexive breathing. 2. Another way is to take a deep breath in your belly, if you can sense that in the first place and a lot of people can not. This is the one most commonly taught by stress management specialists. It subdues many (but not all) nervous reactions including aspects of asthma but does not account for severe blocks in ones breathing nor give one the insight in how to go in to the deepest possible state of relaxation and internal nervous system balance and breathing coordination. I much prefer number 1., the extended exhale precipitating (hopefully) the large easy reflexive in-breath. It is training one to be more like the natural in-breath we take during sleep (again hopefully) which is needed to re-balance the nervous system thousands of times each 24 hour period. Take the free breathing tests at and you will get a better sense of what I am saying. The longer the attained number in test #3, generally the deeper easier the in-breath will be able to be. To reduce anxiety or panic, try this exercise: The Squeeze and Breathe. This is a TEMPORARY approach but has saved lives and relationships. For a permanent solution one must change the way they breathe, even during sleep. Those with a breathing problem are advised to develop their breathing FIRST or at least in conjunction with stress management program where strategies need also be employed. The breathing foundation that best manages stress can be likened to your home base. If you were flying a plane you would need to learn where the home based landing strip is. Then you can travel even into interstellar space and you will know where home base is. Quite often the breathing work IS the stress management program. First learn the fundamentals.
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The breathing improvement
techniques, practices and products outlined in this publication are extremely
gentle, and should, if carried out as described, be beneficial
to your overall physical and psychological health. If you have any serious medical or
psychological problem, however, such as heart disease,
high blood pressure,
cancer, mental illness, or recent abdominal or chest surgery, you should consult your
health professional before undertaking these practices.