Breath Giving Moves during Breath Taking Times

by Brittiney George

Do you feel like you’re in a weird time warp right now? I know I do.  It is as if 

time is both simultaneously standing still and flying by.  I noticed that many of 

my clients are also experiencing the resurgence of old wounds and injuries as 

the distractions of day-to-day living have changed.   When you combine the 

lack of transitional time and space throughout the day with mixed information 

about how to move safely in the world, it makes perfect sense that many people 

are feeling disoriented, disempowered, or even disembodied (like a walking 

head, not an embodied being).

“These are breath taking times, so give yourself a breath”.

As the adrenaline of immediate change wears off, you may be feeling burnt 

out or burnt up.  You may be feeling “off”.  If you are, trust it.  It is your body 

letting you know, “I’m feeling out of sync”, and it is the perfect time to check in 

with a direct link to your nervous system-your breath.  

Are you doing a lot of yawning?

Do you feel disconnected from your body or energetically depleted?

Are you making a lot of out moves- giving all day long but taking little in?

These are great indicators that your body may want to take “in” a breath.  

Often with trauma or in times of stress, we reverse our natural breathing pattern. 

Instead of inhaling down into our core, hips, and pelvis (our root), we inhale up.   

Up into our chest and shoulders.  Up into the front of our body.  Our back body 

and sides, the backs of the ribs, get locked in place without the lungs finding 

their full expansion.  

Maybe you find yourself sighing often?

Or holding a lot in as tension in your torso, chest, jaw or face?

Do your shoulders feel as if they’re carrying the weight 

and responsibility of the world?

These are great indicators that your body may want to let “out” a breath.  

A system that is in overwhelm is looking to release, get out from under, to take 

less on or in.  Think of your exhale as your body’s natural gift of detoxification.  

It’s your body’s way of moving out stale air, pent up energy, and unwanted 

emotional residue.  During times of stress we are often told to “take a breath”, 

but it is the out breath, the exhale, that has the most impact in nervous system 

regulation.  

Breath taking times require breath giving moves.  Give yourself space. 

Gift yourself Breath.

Brittiney George, BS, CST-PRO, ICI, CEIM, is a Movement Practitioner and Somatic Therapist specializing in Transformative Touch.  She is also a faculty trainer and mentor for The Somatic Therapy Center.  Her areas of specialty include working with highly sensitive persons (HSP’s), and supporting nervous system reregulation by resourcing through the body.  For a free 55 min. introductory Somatic Therapy session contact Brittiney at 610-389-7866 or movebackintolife@gmail.com.