This is a breathing exercise called high striker breath and I created it for times when I'm having trouble focusing or for when I'm hyper focused on something and can't get my mind off it.
This exercise is best done sitting upright in a relaxed alert position and in a comfortable calm place.
Of course that's not always possible and I found that the high striker breath is helpful in focusing and calming my nervous system in less than ideal situations.
But I've also found that practicing it in the ideal environment makes it even more effective when I use it in stressful situations.
The exercise is based on a popular carnival game you may have seen called the high striker.
It's a simple game and it's pretty ubiquitous at amusement parks and fairs.
It consists of a lever one end of which is struck by the contestant with a mallet or a hammer.
That strike sends a puck on the other end of the lever up a tower.
The aim being to strike with such force that the puck will strike a bell at the tower's top.
So keeping that in mind let's try this exercise together.
First exhale completely.
Then imagine your next inhale initiating from the base of your tailbone and imagine that there's a little puck of energy and we're going to call that a breath puck.
So visualize that breath puck moving up your spine with your aim being to move it up to the imaginary bell at the crown of your head.
When you do that hold it there for just a moment imagining that bell ringing in a way that's pleasing to your ear.
Then let the breath go and let it slide back down your spine all the way back down to the base of your tailbone.
Repeat that twice noticing how you can attune the mental image to the rhythm of your breathing.
You can make that breath puck fly up the tower of your spine ring the bell hard and slam back down to your tailbone or you can make the breath puck move slowly and deliberately up your spine and perhaps then the bell at the crown of your head makes a deeper more gong like sound that continues to resonate as you mentally hold the breath puck at the top and then gently slowly let it slide back down to your tailbone.
Let it stay there at the very base of your tailbone for just a few moments and then inhale again.
Play with the mental image and the rhythm letting the breath puck stay at both the top and the bottom of your spine tower for just a couple of seconds and maybe vary the speed and force with which your breath puck moves up and down your spine.
If that's enough for you just keep repeating that for the rest of this exercise either varying the rhythm or sticking to the rhythm that feels best for you.
If you'd like to add some color let's imagine that as your breath puck moves up your spine it activates each chakra and its associated color lights up.
So as you initiate the breath at the tailbone a red light glows then an orange light as it begins to travel up the spine then yellow then green at the level of your heart blue as the breath puck moves up your neck indigo at the level of your eyes and then violet as the breath puck strikes the bell at the crown of your head.
Then the breath puck slides back down through the color fields from violet to indigo to blue to green at your heart then yellow orange and finally red at the base of your tailbone.
When you finish the round you're on when that breath puck comes down to your tailbone let your breathing return to normal.
If the high striker breath exercise worked for you try it whenever you're having a hard time focusing or even when you're fixated on something you'd rather not be.
Thanks for listening and for empowering your magical self with me.
