Everyday Bliss For Women In Leadership

In surveying holistic health blogs, I often meet really cool people. One I had the good fortune to meet this week is a Kripalu Yoga teacher and registered nurse, Judi England. She blogs over at TimesUnion, and I want to bring your attention to a great post she made on a five-step relaxation process.

Here’s the meat of the method, though you really should get over to her blog and read it all (the post itself is on cultivating Presence) and check her archives as well as DO this wonderful relaxation method. It can only take a few minutes to go from stressed to blissed.

The more relaxed you are, the more Conscious you are. And I love how this BRFWA process brings great consciousness to the entire system.

From: http://blogs.timesunion.com/holistichealth/?p=306

…Known as BRFWA (pronounced,” brifwah”) - the acronym stands for a five-step process - BREATHE, RELAX, FEEL, WATCH, ALLOW.   Alternatively known as “The Practice of Being Present”,  BRFWA can help me make a shift from tension back to relative ease, from the worries of “what if?” to the management of “what is.”

Here’s how to move through the steps:

1. BREATHE-  Most of our worries link us to the past or the future.  The breath happens minute by minute, entirely in the present.  At the first experience of strong sensations, thoughts or emotions most people find that their breath gets shallow - or even stops temporarily. It’s a common reaction.  To notice when that happens, and reestablishing a steady rhythm of breath can  bring us back into the solid ground of the body and the moment.
2. RELAX - Regular abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing  instantly begins to reverse the stress response.  It’s simply the way we humans are wired.  When stress begins to diminish we can read a current situation and it’s reality more clearly.
3. FEEL - With body calmer and mind less clouded with tension we can begin to  feel what’s really going on.  We can begin to response to actual events rather than react to our fears and imaginings.
4. WATCH- Nothing in life is permanent. Sensations get weaker, stronger, move, or dissolve.  So do emotions. Thoughts are our own creations and can bear little connection to reality.  We love to believe our thoughts and sometimes nothing is more misleading. With the first three steps in place, we can “Watch” the process of impermanence and choose actions that fit each situation as it comes up.
5. ALLOW - Without self-criticism, self-judgment, or creating a”story” about why things are the way they are - we just let everything exist - good bad or indifferent.  We stay right here, in the present.  We know that we don’t have to handle everything at once - just the next thing.

A simple practice - absolutely. An easy practice - not always.  But, like any other behavior we want to include in our life, the more we use it, the better we get at it.

My suggestion is to try it first when stress is mild-moderate.  Don’t wait till red-alert sets in. ( Just like preparation for childbirth - you don’t start when the contractions do!) Try it at home. Teach it to your kids.  Share it with your friends.  Do it at work and make your co-workers wonder what you’re up to.

Try it and make your own personal contribution to world peace - or at least peace in your own corner of the world.

Judi England, RN, LMT, Kripalu Yoga Instructor - yogajudi@aol.com - 10/12/2008

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 10:58 am and is filed under Alt Health, Bliss, Blogging, Consciousness, Relaxation, Stress, Women's Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.