I read an exercise recently in Shift, in a magazine published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you.  The exercise is put out by the Institute of HeartMath and is intended to offer a way to “harmonize the energy between the heart, mind and body, increasing coherence and clarity.”  Following are the steps to the process, as they appeared in the December 2004 – February 2005 issue of Shift:

“Attitude Breathing”

            “…Attitude Breathing is a tool that helps you synchronize your heart, mind, and body to give you that extra power of coherence.   By using this tool regularly – try five times a day – you build more power to make attitude shifts that last.

            In Attitude Breathing, you focus on your heart and solar plexus as you breathe a positive attitude.  The heart will automatically harmonize the energy between the heart, mind and body, increasing coherence and clarity.

Attitude Breathing Tool

            1.  Focus on the heart as you breathe in.  As you breathe out, focus on your solar plexus.  The solar plexus is located about four inches below the heart, just below the sternum where the left and right sides of your ribcage are joined.

            2.  Practice breathing in through the heart and out through the solar plexus for 30 seconds or more to help anchor your energy and attention there.  Next select a positive feeling or attitude to breathe in and out through those same areas for another 30 seconds (or more).  For example, you can breathe in through the heart an attitude of appreciation, and breathe out through the solar plexus an attitude of care.

            3.  Select attitudes to breathe that will help offset the negative emotion or imbalance of the situation you are in.  Breathe deeply with the intent of shifting to the feeling of that attitude.  For example, you can breathe in an attitude of balance and breathe out an attitude of forgiveness, or you can breathe in an attitude of love and breathe out an attitude of compassion.

            Practice different combinations of attitudes you want to develop.  You can tell yourself . . . “Breathe Courage”, “Breathe Ease” . . . or whatever attitude you need or want.  Even if you can’t feel the attitude shift at first, making a genuine earnest effort to shift will at least help you get to a neutral state.  In neutral, you have more objectivity and you save energy.”

(Adapted from “Transforming Stress: The HeartMath Solution for Relieving Worry, Fatigue, and Tension”, New Harbinger Publications, March 2005.)

I invite you to use this exercise as this week’s experiment and to notice what changes you experience in your ability to recenter yourself, and to settle in when you’ve been activated into some feeling or urge that isn’t moving through as easily as you’d like.

As with every experiment, please remember to bring curiosity along as your constant companion.  There’s no right or wrong way to do this.  There’s only the opportunity to explore an approach that might add one more tool to your repertoire of ways to restabilize and recenter yourself.