Attachment theory & Attachment Parenting

Before we start with the exercise:

It is a very important ability to focus attention on yourself, register sensations from the body, tensions appearing in its different parts. The first and most significant step is to be able to  examine your stress level, current needs and consciously direct your attention or breath there. Our tensions could be habitual, to the extent where we stop being aware of them and pass to the daily routine. Only conscious attention allows us to register them and capture the places where we accumulate stress. 

Contact with the body – recognizing tension – also allows us to recognize our needs – just at their source, focusing on these sensations or the breath allows us to calm down scattered thoughts and stop their crowds, which can be an element of excessive stress. The techniques of mindfulness of the body also allow you to consciously direct attention: narrow it when we focus on a specific part of the body or broaden it when we are regarding the whole body. The process of focusing on the body makes it more cooperative as a result (just like a child when it is seen, important and taken into account).

All techniques based on mindfulness have been proven to reduce anxiety, sleep quality, mood and stress levels. They allow you to focus on the current experience, replacing analysis (especially critical ones) with neutral observation without following that experience too far.

Now, let’s start with the exercise:

Step 1: Testing the tension level

1. Stop where you are. You can close your eyes, turn your attention to your body. 
2. What position are you in? What is your body’s level of relaxation or tension? Do you feel like sort of pasta straight from the package or the overcooked one? Where do you feel possible tensions?

You can investigate specific points where tension tends to accumulate:

• jaws
• nape / neck
• arms
• spine
• lower back / loins

3. What happens to tension when you notice it? Try to observe this tension for a long time

Step 2: Relaxing tension through the breath

1. Once you manage to locate the tension in the body, try to direct your breath to this place – imagine yourself directing the air flow that way. 
2. When you exhale, try to lengthen it (with each subsequent one) a little. For example, you can imagine that you are deflating a balloon by squeezing the vent a little and prolonging the pumping out of the air. 
3. Do about 5-10 repetitions and then see how this affects the tense area.