How purposeful breathing can heal trauma-in-the-making and stop pain.
I just fell going down my back steps. As a 57 year old woman, the fear and negativity around falling is huge. Breaking bones, twisting ankles, and generally getting sidelined from the game of life and impediments to getting sh!t done had become mental ogres of the highest order.
Also, while falling I dropped my first cup of coffee of the day, which was insult to injury since I’d ground the beans myself and everything.
When I hit the cement, I cried out, made some guttural noises and generally felt like “oh shit, this is going to ruin my life for a while.” Then I muttered something like, “not this, not this, not this,” while evaluating my mangled position on the ground and inability to get up.
The fall was a big shock to my system. My sounds were like an animal’s. How embarrassing.
The last time I fell like that I had two months of walking funny and swollen ankle + pain. That fall had f-ed up my ability to enjoy walking in the woods and yoga class, which in turn, made me feel sedentary, and was not great for my mood.
Then a memory came my way… a saving grace.
While the air conditioning unit installed above me spat little bits of processed water at me in capricious little F you’s, and I watched my coffee roll into an electric cord, I remembered something taught to me by a master of physical being.
How to diffuse pain, and even mitigate the effects of traumatic injury before they take hold.
Since I was stuck on the ground, I figured I’d try it.
Spoiler: it worked.
I remembered how he taught me to breathe a special way ON PURPOSE. On breathing out pain and trauma before it settled into one’s body as “a thing.” Breathing out the stuff that makes pain calcify, makes us tell “woe is me” stories, or entrench injury into long term chronic issues.
I had realized this in time to try it. So I did.
If you’ve ever done yogic breathing, perhaps, you’ll know the Pranayama Breath of Fire which is close to what I did, even though I was not sitting the “proper” position.
If you need a refresher: here’s the right way to do it.
Since all I could do was sit up with one leg outstretched, hurting like a sonofabitch, I just breathed those forceful exhales from that place. Over and over.
Lke a woman possessed, with the intention of letting the pain OUT, and getting myself to a place like before the fall even happened, I sat there and wondered, how is this actually going to work?
Within perhaps 15 breaths the pain completely went away. Within maybe 6 more, I realized I was okay enough to get up. After one or two more for good luck, I realized I was fine and stood up.
While there is a teeny bit of discomfort in my ankle, I know I can carry on with my physical activity and walk, do yoga, even run. What a godsend.
So, that’s what I’m sharing with to you: how breathing alone can remove pain and set you up for healing. As given to me by a wise man who once taught his own children the same thing.