Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul

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And so whatever tone gets laid on by spiritual leaders and others is the tone we take from it—many times. When you hear the news of something awful happening to someone you love, take a breath and say, “Oh Jesus, be close to them. There is no magic formula, no right or wrong way, no exact words to say or perfect tool to use, no exact posture to be in or even specific place to be, to have a conversation with God.

You can try starting with one of my favorites: Inhale: Lord, You are my shepherd Exhale: I have all that I need.And it’s simple; it’s a good strategy to integrate with, like you said, deep breathing, which is, this activity is a mind, body, spirit practice. Coronavirus has placed our economic and health systems under unprecedented stress, not to mention many of us personally.

If you find yourself needing more energy and power in a long game,” he said, “breathe more shallowly, through your mouth. I had to get real honest with myself and my own anxiety and my own struggles with my own mental health. If you want to know a little more about the history of breath prayer, I’ve linked a few great blog posts and articles, as well as a few books written by other lovely humans for you to check out!One approach they used was repetition of confession on the exhaled breath, and acceptance of forgiveness on the inhaled breath. God, help me through this day,” “Jesus, you’re so good to me” or “Spirit, guide me,” are phrases that I’m often breathing into prayer in the midst of my crazy day. So to her, it made it natural to add scripture and shorten phrases from key verses, to help support the rhythm of her intentional calming breath.

It’s not the only prayers I pray, but it’s become a significant way for me to slow down and be very intentional about trusting God and leaning into him when I’m anxious. In one study, breathing practices proved successful “to correct imbalances of the stress response systems and to facilitate emotion regulation, social engagement, bonding, and recovery from trauma. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do.

We can do breath prayers to find connection to God throughout the day just by the simple task of breathing in and out. A little phrase that we’ve learned to remember how to breathe is to smell the flowers and blow out the candles so you always inhale through your nose and then exhale through your mouth slowly and fully. Streaming Video fulfilled through Study Gateway cannot be downloaded for viewing in other digital apps like YouTube or Vimeo.