The AH Breath Relaxation Exercise

This is a deep relaxation technique that one person does for another person (i.e. the caregiver for the patient). If the patient has a cardiac or other condition that could possibly make sudden relaxation dangerous, don't do this exercise.

The Exercise:

*The person being relaxed is called the receiver and the person doing the exercise is called the giver.

The receiver is arranged so that his or her breathing is visible (chest/ abdomen) to the giver. The giver describes to the receiver what they are going to do - "this is a relaxation exercise your only job is to shut your eyes and listen to the AH sounds I'm going to make."

Giver: quiet your own mind. Tell the receiver to relax their body (with a soft voice mention each body part that the receiver should relax). When you are ready, watch the breathing of the receiver. Begin to softly say AH with each out breath of the receiver. The exercise is this simple. The giver should continue the exercise for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour. The giver does not touch the receiver during the exercise.

The AH is the sound of the open heart and of letting go. Don't be concerned if the receiver has an emotional release. More likely than often the receiver will go into a deep relaxation (their breathing may slow down dramatically). If the breathing slows the AH doesn't have to last as long as the out breath. Once you do this exercise for the full 20-60 minutes than you can use it for shorter periods if the person is getting anxious. Do a few AH breaths for short periods to ease temporary anxiety.

The deeper purpose of this is that the AH breath exercise is training for the deeper letting go into death itself. As death is approaching it can be done to ease the transition out of the body.

© living/dying project 2002