holding your breath..tension and repression

[Deleted]

I find myself holding my breath constantly. Or deep sighing constantly.

In theater we are taught that this is a way to suppress deep emotions.

To be authentic on stage, we breathe a way we were trained, to release tension and emotion. The tension is often in the diaphragm. The stomach muscles. We are told to relax them. To let our bellies puff out.

Girls don't like belly fat. I don't. So we hold our gut in. I don't like my gut.

Naked I look like a pregnant praying mantis when I let my gut out.

Do you hold your breath?

What comes out when you don't?

For me, it is Sh'e.

Mostly just that. And fear, anxiety, more often it is a flood of tears waiting.

How much more rich a life is without tension, allowing us to feel the feelings.

Thoughts or tools to release tension my dears?

Blessings

Trinity

[EchelonHunt]

A warm candle-lit bubble-bath. I save these for times I am feeling extra tense than usual and in need of serious pampered feelings.

I also experiment with make-up, it calms me down and relaxes me. It also allows me to express my core just a little better than before.

[Laura J]

I know about the deep breathing and sighs, when I get upset or have anxiety, that's exactly how I keep my feelings pushed inside, especially when others are around and I want to hide how I really feel.

It reminds me of making a snowball from powdery snow. The soft snow easily falls apart, but as you pack it down over and over, it becomes hard like ice, and eventually it won't even break if it hits the hard ground. I think sighing and deep breaths do something similar to our troubles and worries, at least temporarily.

You might not have noticed Saturday, but I came close to tears a couple times as a few people where sharing, and I took deep breaths to gain back my composure.

Its probably a natural mechanism to deal with emotional stress.

Being a big cry baby, I do these kinds of things to cope. But when I'm alone, I breath shallow and short, and I find that brings a lot of feelings to the surface, if I feel in a mood to release..

[Deleted]

I practice that when I feel an emotional surge at inappropriate times and places and when I'm around people that I don't want to expose my emotions to. I find that deep breathing can lower blood pressure as it always seems higher than normal at the doctor's office. This has always been a component of my ability to stuff.

[Laura J]

Oh I do that at doctors offices too.!
Great minds must think alike.! Haha.

[Deleted]

Awareness is first, exercise, giving permission to feel. Breathing, being, taking your space, owning your space...

That helps.