Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

When in doubt breathe out: the power of the breath to ease pain and other contracted states.

With Vidyamala Burch recorded on April 16, 2017.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

In this talk Vidyamala discusses how most of us hold the breath whenever we are in pain or other difficult states. She leads a ‘whole body’ breathing meditation followed by input on how to rest in the flow of the breath as a way to learn to rest in the flow of life and let go of the resistance that causes so much extra suffering.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    The Unshakeable Heart: Liberation as the Ultimate Resilience

    Is it possible to live and love freely amidst the greed, aggression and dysfunction of the world?⁠⁠Amidst so much suffering, can you nourish joy, lightness and laughter?⁠⁠When it feels as if you’re drowning, might it be that you are floating in an ocean of blessings?⁠⁠In times of political polarisation and dysfunction, broken societal modelling, a…

    Read More

  • The Spectrum of Awareness Practices

      This session will explore different ways in which attention works and associated meditation practices: from focused awareness, to flexible awareness, to natural awareness. We’ll do a number of fun experiential practices in hopes of understanding a variety of ways to meditate and how we can refine our own practice. Diana draws from her latest…

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of February 19, 2024

    What is your relationship to fear? When fear arises, is your tendency to collapse into it, or to resist and struggle with it? Or do you deny it? How do you know if you need to face fear with courage, or simply surrender to its inevitability? What does it mean to practice with fear? In this week of Daily Meditations, you are invited to join Miles in an exploration into the human experience of fear, and how it arises in your life, relationships, and practice. You will learn how to work with fear by cultivating courage and surrender, the core qualities of the Spiritual Warrior.

    Read More

  • Mindful Intentions: From Pressure to Growth

    What effect does it have if we practice mindfulness and meditation motivated by the fundamental assumption that there is something wrong with us? Perspectives such as ‘not being good enough’ or being ‘damaged goods’ can turn our practice into a painstaking attempt to improve ourselves. During this session we will inquire into our motivations for…

    Read More

  • Surrendering the Clever Mind into the Listening Heart

    As our deepening poly-crises shift us from a sense of predictability, stability, and even a future, into crisis management as a daily norm, how can our practice support inner resilience and a meaningful response? We will touch on Dharma practices and teachings that support the internal shifts needed as we transition from over-reliance on separative…

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of May 27 – 31, 2024

    This week’s topic is “Mindfulness of the nervous system: transforming fear, struggle and separation into love and connection”. We humans are social animals and need each other to feel safe and secure, to grow and to nourish ourselves. How can we live with a sense of connection, loving-kindness, and inner family? Our meditation practice allows us to take a break between stimulus and response. When we come into contact with our loved ones, we all too easily lose the inner freedom we think we have achieved and avoid our difficulties, also called spiritual bypassing. This week we explore what supports us to react flexibly to the internal and external world, to relax and to allow closeness and real intimacy. We will look into the first foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of the body, including harmonizing the body formations and nervous system to meet our difficulties with gentleness.

    Read More