| Last week I was sitting in the surgery waiting room | | | | rather than covering two sides in one breath. |
| feeling anxious and nervous. My father was in the | | | | 2. Follow the square in the opposite direction. This felt |
| hospital for a "quick procedure" to check on the status | | | | very different and I decided I liked clockwise breathing |
| of his aortic aneurysm. My father is 82 and the | | | | better than counter-clockwise. |
| doctors had found something "odd" on his last CAT | | | | 3. Alternate breathing larger squares (4 ceiling tiles) |
| scan. When you are 82, "odd" equals "not good". I was | | | | with smaller squares (1 tile). |
| worried that the doctor was going to tell me something | | | | 4. Challenge yourself to breathe v-e-r-y slowly on |
| horrible about my Dad's health. I sat trying to distract | | | | each side of the square. |
| myself with a book, but I couldn't read. The chairs in the | | | | 5. Try and see how deeply you can breathe. |
| waiting room were hard and uncomfortable, and I'll | | | | My neck was developing a crick, so I started looking |
| have to admit I was feeling decidedly grumpy. I | | | | for other squares, and discovered lots of rectangles in |
| happened to look up at the ceiling and I noticed it was | | | | the waiting room; paintings, doors, windows, magazines |
| one of those dropped ceilings with square tiles in metal | | | | and a table. Rectangles are fun, because your breath |
| frames and I suddenly remembered a stress relief | | | | has to be shorter on two of the sides. I practiced short |
| technique which was perfect for the waiting room. | | | | inhalations and long exhalations, and then the reverse. |
| The technique is called Square Breathing. You find a | | | | To tell you the truth, I was able to spend about 15 |
| square, in my case a ceiling tile, and follow the outlines | | | | minutes, happily engaged in breathing squares and |
| of the square as you breathe deeply in and out. It | | | | rectangles and playing with different combinations. I |
| works like this: | | | | forgot to worry about my Dad for those 15 minutes. I |
| | | | took in more oxygen because I was breathing deeply, |
| 1. Start in the upper right hand corner of the square. | | | | and I didn't feel quite so tired. By the time I snapped |
| Breathe in as your eyes move clockwise, to the lower | | | | back to awareness in the waiting room, I was much |
| right hand corner of the square and on to the lower | | | | calmer. |
| left of the square. | | | | The Square Breathing technique combats stress in |
| 2. Stop inhaling at the lower left corner of the square, | | | | several ways. When we are anxious or stressed our |
| and switch to exhaling. | | | | breathing becomes shallower, so we get less oxygen. |
| 3. Breathe out as your eyes move to the upper left | | | | The deep breathing of the Square breathing technique |
| corner of the square and return to the starting point. | | | | increases the oxygen in the bloodstream. By using |
| 4. You have now "breathed a square". | | | | your eyes during Square Breathing in conjunction with |
| I repeated this several times and found that I felt | | | | your breath, you disengage your thinking processes |
| calmer. I decided to experiment and came up with | | | | and allow calm to creep in. So find a square and give it |
| several variations. | | | | a go. |
| | | | By the way, the good news is that my Father is just |
| 1. Take a breath in or out for each side of the square, | | | | fine! |