Breath & mindfulness
When small things become very big.
Explained in detail
Your body delivers information — that does not automatically make it right. We learn to sort out this information together with mind and heart.
Between stimulus and reaction lies one breath. Whoever notices it decides; whoever skips it is decided for. Mindfulness here is neither an attitude nor a course, but a skill in three steps: notice what is there, sort out what it means, and only then act.
Your body delivers information — that does not automatically make it right. Tightness in the chest can be fear or tension, tiredness can be exhaustion or reluctance. We practise reading these signals and sorting them out together with mind and heart. You learn three techniques: one before the conversation, one in the middle of it, one afterwards.
When an evening ends in an argument, closeness can seem impossible. One of you is still looking for it. The other cannot accept it right now.
And then sleep comes. Where we plan nothing, explain nothing and control nothing, the body is allowed to speak again.
A touch. A distance that suddenly gets smaller. A hand, a foot or a shoulder that quite naturally seeks closeness and settles against you.
Perhaps something shows itself there that the waking mind still resists: the connection is still there. Can you remember moments like that?
Body intelligence means listening to these quiet signals again. Because sometimes the body has long known what the head cannot yet allow.
- You react faster than you can think.
- Tension sits in the body before it reaches your head.
- At night you continue this morning’s conversation. Your hurt no longer comes to a full stop.
- You want to stay calm and cannot do it on command.
- 1Notice: what is my body saying right now?
- 2Sort out: what of it is fear, what is the present?
- 3Act without losing yourself.
Three things you can do today
You need no appointment and nobody’s permission. If one of the three exercises moves something, you know the conversation is worth it.
4–6 breathing
90 seconds, any time
Breathe in for four seconds, out for six, six rounds. The longer exhale lowers the pulse and helps you fall asleep — that works even if you do not believe it.
The body check
3 times a day
Ask yourself in the morning, at midday and in the evening: what do I feel right now, and where? Only name it, do not judge. After two weeks you recognise your early warning signs.
One breath before answering
during the conversation
Breathe all the way out before reacting to a sentence that hits you. That breath is the difference between an answer and a reflex.
„Between stimulus and reaction lies one breath. Whoever notices it decides — whoever skips it is decided for.“