How to Breathe to Relieve Anxiety
Topics:
“How to Breathe to Relieve Anxiety”
“Everything Is a Choice”
“Subjective and Objective: The What and the How”
Friday, August 15, 2025
Participants: Mary (Michael) and Jean (Lyla)
[Excerpts pulled from two-hour session]
EXCERPT 1:
ELIAS: And one of the most successful avenues and behavior that you can engage is to be breathing: intentionally breathing from your belly, and then while you're inhaling and you are breathing into your belly, then push past your belly to any area of your body that you feel discomfort, tension, anxiety.
JEAN: What does that mean? Like breathe into that? Push the breath into that?
ELIAS: Into that. Push the breath into that.
JEAN: And that would include my hips?
ELIAS: Everywhere.
JEAN: Okay.
ELIAS: Everywhere, including wherever you identify anxiety coming from.
It's easier to find tension, because you can feel tension in any part of your body. Especially if you're shaking, you can identify where the tension is. You can see it in your hands. You can feel it in your arms, your shoulders, your back, your legs, everywhere. It's more challenging to find where anxiety is, because it's in your body also, and in that, that has to do with your neurological system.
Your neurological system moves through your entire body, as you know. Anxiety doesn't, necessarily. Therefore, it IS in your neurological system, but generally, anxiety is going to be in your core and in your spine, in your neck especially – in the neck part of your spine, at the base of your head, I'd say through the first four vertebrae – and in your core. Therefore, structurally – if you pay attention – you'll feel it in your ribcage, in those bones, not necessarily in the organs, and not necessarily in the muscles, as you will with tension. You can feel tension in organs and in muscle.
Anxiety isn't coming from organs and muscle. It's coming from your neurological system that's intertwined through your bones. And in that, it's based, or centered, in your core. Therefore, it's a matter of breathing into those bones, breathing into your neck and the base of your head, targeting them each: You're targeting the bones, you're targeting the base of your head, you're targeting your ribs and the spine that holds them together. And in that, you can't do it all at once, because your breath is going to move in one direction at a time.
When you become more proficient at this action, you should be able to breathe into something, generate that push into something three times, and it will be gone.
Now, when you push –
JEAN: So the push is at the end of the inhalation?
ELIAS: Yes. It's at the end of the breath, and in. When you push into the area of the discomfort, keep pushing until you have no room to breathe anymore, until you can't breathe in any longer, and simply hold that push for about one or two seconds. (Jean demonstrates) Yes. And then you breathe out – you can breathe out with some force. In that, you don't have to, but you can. In that you're breathing out intentionally, that energy that creates the discomfort, you're breathing out taking with it that discomfort. Therefore you can almost visualize that discomfort riding that wave of your exhalation outward.
And it IS very effective. You can practice it anywhere at any time. You can be walking down the street or the avenue, and you can be generating this exercise.
JEAN: Even swimming, I would imagine.
ELIAS: Yes, yes.
JEAN: This is, I think, an example of what you said with my medical training that would say, “Oh, this doesn't make sense.” But when you look at everything being interconnected and using your INTENTION, something's connected to the bones, you know? You just start thinking in a different… Am I on the right track? You just…
ELIAS: Yes. And your breath is connected to everything, because that's what gives you life. If you're not breathing, you're not living. In that, your body is dependent upon your breathing, but your breathing is much more powerful than you recognize, or than you realize. It's VERY powerful, and it can do anything.
JEAN: What do you mean by it can do anything? I think you're saying something like you could use it intentionally.
ELIAS: Oh, definitely. Definitely.
JEAN: For instance?
ELIAS: You can use your breathing for anything, literally. Because in mastering breathing, you also master the ability to be centered. And if you're centered, you have more clarity. And with clarity, that allows you intentional choices that you can move in any direction you choose.
Everything is about choice and how to move to the point of being intentional with choice. That has been the center of everything from the onset of my engagement with each of you. That's always been the center, and it's always been the goal, to be able to live intentionally, to choose intentionally. Because if you can choose intentionally, then you can choose what is beneficial to you, and you can choose what you want.
JEAN: Just on the subject of choosing, I wanted to ask about that. Until, I think, a recent session with Ann, where she kind of fleshed something out and it was kind of like, “Wow, is this really true?”, I always thought of choice as you always had very limited choices, you know? But from what I understood in that session of hers is that you can choose ANYTHING you want – anything you want!
ELIAS: You're choosing every moment. Every minute that you exist, you're making choices. You're making a choice to breathe in every moment. That's a choice. Therefore, it's not only a matter of WHAT, but it's a matter of HOW. You can choose how you're breathing also, therefore how you're directing yourself, not simply breathing.
This is an excellent metaphor for everything, because it's something that is very personal to you. It sustains your life individually, but it's also a metaphor for directedness.
JEAN: So I love my new car, but let's just say I wanted to get another car. I still have the 21-year-old, and I'd like to have a different one. So, I'm “choosing” to get a Ford Mustang. I mean, that's a choice.
ELIAS: Yes, it is.
JEAN: Because I like the style of the SUV Ford Mustangs (laughs). But anyway… But then in my mind, it's like, “Well, you can't do that right now. You've got this new car, you've got car payments this, and we don't have this, and we don't have that and whatever.” But what's keeping me from having that Ford Mustang in my driveway is what? Perception.
ELIAS: Yes!
JEAN: Because the world can be magical. It could happen next week.
ELIAS: It could.
JEAN: Wow! I could be on the Italian Riviera next week.
ELIAS: You could.
JEAN: And that's all a choice.
ELIAS: EVERYTHING is a choice.
JEAN: Fucking amazing.
ELIAS: (Emphatically) Everything is a choice.
JEAN: And I guess the other part is that if you set that intention and take some action steps, you don't have to – you know, because you get caught up in, “Well, how's that going to happen?” I think this is where directing the subjective and the objective –
ELIAS: Together.
JEAN: – together comes in. (Elias nods yes)
(Excerpt ends after 13 minutes)
EXCERPT 2:
JEAN: You were talking about, in working with physical manifestations, that you could work through the indigo [energy] center and at least temporarily heal something; it may come back, because you haven’t addressed to the underlying. But I think it was in another session, maybe with Natasha, you had said something about, “It's a matter of telling the subjective awareness, “You've been in control too long. I'm taking back the power.” You remember that? (Elias nods yes) That hasn't worked for me yet… neither. (Both crack up laughing)
ELIAS: First of all, it's a matter of becoming much more familiar with the subjective awareness, and knowing that it's part of you, knowing that it's EQUALLY a part of you as your objective awareness. And look at how powerful the objective awareness is, and the subjective is no LESS powerful; you simply don't pay attention to it. You're always paying attention to the objective.
Therefore, THAT’S the first piece, is becoming more aware, paying more attention in that direction. And that's difficult, because for the most part, you don't know what you're paying attention to.
JEAN: And you're going to talk about this – [more in the upcoming group session]?
ELIAS: I am. I am.
JEAN: Okay. Then I won't.
ELIAS: I would say that it's a matter of knowing that there is another half of you that you're not paying attention to and that has a lot of power. It's influencing just as much as the objective is – throughout your day, throughout all of your experiences, throughout your life!
Therefore, in that, it's a matter of recognizing that… (slight pause) it's not simply a matter of saying to yourself, “Why?” That's the most popular question: “Why? Why did this happen? Why did that happen? Why did I do that? Why WOULD I do that? Why did I choose my parents?” It's the most useless question (laughs). It's a matter of “WHAT am I doing, or what WAS I doing and HOW?” “What” and “how” are the important questions: “WHAT am I paying attention to, and HOW am I paying attention to that?”
JEAN: And with the physical manifestations I have now, Brenda was kind enough to share her session. I'm going to transcribe it for her. I found it so interesting that if you have trauma-related, in her case, punishment issues, is that some of my issues as being bad and trauma? (Elias nods yes) But you will regenerate around those. You'll still continue with those. So by you and me addressing to this, can I heal me? Not theoretically, but –
ELIAS: Yes, yes.
JEAN: So by engaging this, by doing the expense and the bravery and everything, coming up here and engaging this, is the subjective awareness aware that it's time to –
ELIAS: Oh, yes.
JEAN: I don't have to push. I don't have to “figure something out.”
ELIAS: The subjective awareness is you.
JEAN: Right.
ELIAS: Just as much as –
JEAN: So it’s what I’m DOING that is instructing the subjective awareness.
ELIAS: It's already aware, because it's you. It's not another entity.
JEAN: I know, I know, I know.
ELIAS: But you don't.
JEAN: I know I don’t. (Elias cracks up laughing) I mean, I know I don't know.
ELIAS: Yes, I understand. And in that, are you objectively aware of your hip?
JEAN: Yes.
ELIAS: Then you're subjectively aware of it also. Are you objectively aware that you want to heal it?
JEAN: Yes.
ELIAS: And therefore you are also aware subjectively.
JEAN: Okay. The same with my eyes and the floaters?
ELIAS: Yes. They're both aware, because they're both you.
JEAN: Okay.
ELIAS: Whatever you're aware of or doing objectively, you're aware of and doing subjectively. Therefore, that's the reason that it's so important to be paying attention to the “what” and the “how.”
JEAN: Would you use my hip as an example with what and how?
ELIAS: Yes. The “what” is the objective and expressing the suggestion of holding energy in that spot. The “how” is the subjective implementing that.
Now, if you use an example that's NOT in your body, then the “what” is the objective expression or interaction. The “how” is the influence of the choices that you're making in relation to that interaction.
JEAN: Can we use an example? I mean, let's get down and dirty with this hip. What am I doing and how am I doing?
ELIAS: With your hip?
JEAN: Yeah.
ELIAS: What you're doing is creating a physical manifestation.
[The timer for the session rings]
HOW you're doing that is you're taking all of the information of all of this held energy, all of these traumas, all of these experiences, and you are pushing them into that area of your body.
Many, if not most, people experience random pains in their body only for a few seconds. Those are all spots of held energy, but they're not concentrated. That's the reason that they feel it only for a few seconds, or perhaps only for one second, and then it's gone. When you have considerable energy buildup, and the buildup isn't just from the traumas… Actually with you presently, it's not from the traumas at all anymore; it's from the influences of the traumas. It's from the continued behaviors, the continued choices that are repetitive. And therefore all that energy is concentrated, figuratively speaking, into a ball, and in conjunction with the objective, you create a physical manifestation. You've created it in your hip to be irritated, and something that you feel constantly, every time you walk, every time you sit in a certain position, even in your sleep. Therefore, you've CHOSEN – you've made a choice – to create a physical manifestation of all of this held energy.
JEAN: It's a constant choice because of my behaviors.
ELIAS: Correct!
JEAN: Okay, which is that's my concentration.
ELIAS: Correct.
JEAN: And my attention.
ELIAS: Correct.
JEAN: Okay.
(Excerpt ends after 10 minutes)
Copyright 2025 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved.