One of the delights of Clinical Hypnosis work is introducing a simple breathing technique to children - and adults - adapted from Joyce C. Mill's work, which she calls "The Magic Happy Breath". In these days of color codes for security, not just for ozone levels, rising stress levels, etc., remembering how to enjoy the breath we take in seems vital.
I first ask children to show me how they take a deep breath. Invariably, they adorably screw their foreheads in concentration, tighten assorted muscle groups, breathe in noisily through their mouths and lift their shoulders up during their intake breath. I explain that their lungs aren't located in their shoulders, but in their back, where they wings would be. The children usually laugh. I demonstrate taking a hearty breath - closed mouth intake; loud and silly long outtake of breath. I hold my diaphragm area and show the child how I push out with my intake breath, filling and emptying my lungs as if inflating and deflating a balloon.
I ask the children to think of what they would like to feel when breathing in - and then whether that feeling (i.e., "good", "peaceful", "happy", etc) has a color (e.g., I ask "what does that feeling look like?"), texture (e.g., asking "is it velvety, bubbly, smooth, fizzy?"), temperature (e.g., asking "does it feel warm or cool?"), flavor (e.g., "strawberry, peach-mango, etc.?), smell, etc. Then I do the same thing with a more "uncomfortable or "upset" feeling they might want to "breathe out". I help children associate the comfortable and uncomfortable feelings, colors, textures, smells, etc with breathing in and out.
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