I spent a day in the garden today and it was a nice escape from the demands of academic books. Working in the garden is not compulsory, of course, in order to get away from the intellectual realm. The earth breath technique can be done anywhere and can be a vital part of integrative psychotherapeutic practice.
The Earth Breath Technique involves stabilizing our energy, and slowing down our rhythm. Breathe slowly in through the nose and as you do imagine that you are drawing up the magnetic energy from the heart of the earth. Release slowly through the nose whilst focusing on the crown chakra, imagining a white light descending down the spinal column, releasing any stale energy from your magnetic field.
It is important that clients with an intellectual tendency sit with both feet on the ground in the therapy room. The Earth Breath Technique can help to avoid the temptation to drift off into an intellectual level. It can hold the potential to restore the magnestism of the body. Earth qualities can represent transformation over the course of therapy, attuning to the earth and connecting with the earth’s abundance and fertility. Earth qualities help enable us to contain our feelings and help us avoid being so easily triggered. Earth qualities are typically those of resilience, perseverance and discipline.
For Vaughan and Walsh (1993) transpersonal practices are those structured activities that focus on inducing transpersonal experiences. Transpersonal experiences may be defined as experiences in which the sense of identity of self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos. However, it is perhaps equally important to remind oneself from the writings of Rich Hycner (1993) that technique is not what therapy is all about – it is the relationship that heals.
Sand has an ancient quality as well as an obvious earth quality and sand tray work in psychotherapy can also help to bypass intellectual defences.