In summary, conscious breathing creates calmness, stillness, and peacefulness. And by conscious doing − the third tool − you practice patience by non-reaction. In other words, you consciously practice “physical non-doing” and leave the breathing to do the work, creating progress.
This is conscious thinking where the skill of patience is the main mental activity. What is needed is higher awareness which brings discernment and insight, not superficial thinking which brings confusion, conflict and anxiety.
In the last breathing exercise, we learned about the skill of patience, and how to observe the calmness and stillness that emerged from deep breathing. We breathe and observe, thus we can witness our thoughts. By doing this you can become conscious of the negative and destructive nature of a thought and not be influenced by it. Try this exercise now:
Before we go into the next important and effective practice, I want to give you a perspective for self-confidence. After practicing all the earlier exercises, know that you are moving forward. You are making good progress. Follow your inner silence, and you will begin to hear your intuitive inner voice. It will tell you how to move forward. Remember, no person in this world can do this for you, but YOU.
Self-indulgence interferes in the progress of your mental skills. Depression feeds on not having self-control – such as disordered thinking and a lack of discernment between useful or useless thoughts. The strong need for self-indulgence means a lack of inner joy. In case you have a strong sense for indulgence or over-identifying with your depressive mental state, just consciously indulge for a moment and then get back to the real work – building up patience through stillness in order for deeper insight and mental clarity to prevail.
Let’s focus on these positive energies, intensify their effect and experience progress in a very direct and immediate way:
Sit with your back straight on a chair, or lie down on a bed or couch, wherever is most comfortable for you. Allow yourself any additional comfort and support from pillows, or blankets, etc. Relax your face muscles, your arms and your legs – relax your whole body. Stay conscious of your relaxed muscles.
This is the most important part of this exercise: exhalation only. And more importantly: with ease!
The exhalation is an activity of calmness, letting go, and relaxation – physical and mental. When you focus on the exhalation, you have acquired the TOOL for detachment. So, focus your whole attention, your whole energy on exhalation only. Now that you have done all the other exercises from the previous posts, you will be familiar with what I am saying.
If I had put the fourth exercise in the first post, would you have understood and connected with it? All the words written so far were a systematic approach to take you slowly and precisely to this moment, to this state of being. You can only have progress if you fully connect to these exercises, otherwise the words are meaningless. Truly, immerse in this moment using these words and creating your experience, touching a deeper dimension of yourself:
Repeat this five times and continue:
Repeat this five times and continue:
Repeat this five times and continue:
The calmer you remain – with each exhale – the more stable your mental state. That means the lower the possibility for your impatience to prevail. Exhale – intensify the energy of your mental stability, your stillness and your peacefulness. Your success is this progress.
Vairagya is a yogic concept of letting go, which has to be understood in a philosophical and psychological context: letting go of things that cannot bring you progress of any kind. Think for example of a silly joke; it brings laughter and leaves you with a good feeling – that’s constructive, positive progress. But the question is how long does it last, and how far can that good feeling take you. Since worries cause only stress, the smartest thing to do is, let go of them – look at them from a distance and make a step by step plan that can provide a solution. For example …
Completely exhale all of the air out of your lungs – let go of all the toxins and debris out of the body and prepare to receive a new, pure energy. The same way you let go of anything that is destructive to your mind and introduce a new fresh energy – so there are no thoughts, only energy – the flow of your breath: the energy of stillness and silence − energies that create mental space, mental stability and clarity of thought. Vairagya teaches you how to handle your depression by witnessing your negative thoughts and letting them go. I repeat: Letting go means being aware of a thought and allowing it to float away.
Keep focusing your attention on exhaling – letting go of mental and physical tension in all your muscles by creating calmness. Work with your patience – feel the constant presence of it – the stillness, the peacefulness. You have worked hard to get it, so build upon it. Feel that freedom within you. It enables you to have a deeper insight within yourself, to be able to be aware of what’s going on inside yourself – the awakening of your higher intelligence. Don’t analyze or draw conclusions, just exhale, thus creating harmony within you. Know that you’re calm, vital and fully alive.
IN THE NEXT POST…
We will work with a new exercise that will bring us physical strength and more mental stability. This way we can go out into the world and be active, contribute, and have fun.
I wish you only good progress. Handle your depression with these exercises. Your good work will soon come to fruition.