HEALTHY COMPUTING EMAIL TIP 115: BREATHING HANDS

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Healthy Computing Email Tips.  Each week we provide hints to help you stay
healthier while working. 
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When working at the computer, do you ever feel stiffness or tenderness in
your hands, wrists or forearms?  Does this discomfort sometimes stay with
you after you have stopped working?  Aching and painful hands, wrists and
forearms may lead to injury.  Stop the cycle of discomfort and prevent
injury.  Learn to practice BREATHING HANDS.

HOW TO DO BREATHING HANDS*:

Sit upright in a chair with your knees comfortably bent at a 90-degree
angle with your arms hanging at your sides.  Allow the weight of your arms
and hands to gently pull your shoulders into a more comfortable alignment
with your chest, back, and sides. Do this for a few minutes while focusing
on the warmth and heaviness of your hands and arms. Feel your shoulders
being pulled down by gravity. At the same time, imagine a hook attached to
the top of your head that is gently pulling you up, stretching your neck
and spine. Notice your breath as it flows in and out on its own.

While keeping the upper arms hanging down, slowly raise your forearms by
bending your elbows. Lift your forearms up until they are parallel to the
floor while keeping your hands limp with your fingers dropping down. Sense
the weight and warmth of your hands as they hang downwards from the
wrists.  Notice your breath as it comes and goes on its own.

Slowly, with sensory awareness, rotate your hands outward so that your
hands turn over until your palms are facing upward.  As your palms face
upward, allow your hands and fingers to hang down from your wrists.
Maintain the limpness in your hands and fingers.  Again, feel the warmth
and weight of your hands. Notice your breath as it flows in and out on its
own.

Then rotate your hands inward so that your palms and fingers face and hang
downward.  Do this rotation effortlessly so that your hands gently flop
over.  Allow your hands to hang down from your wrists while observing the
sensations in your fingers. 

Repeat the rotation of your hands by allowing your hands and fingers to
gently flop back and forth. Play and experiment with this.  Do this at
1-minute intervals or five-second intervals and explore what works best
for you.

Notice how your breath and your body slowly and subtly shift to a more
comfortable alignment with each gentle rotation of your wrists. Most
people find that they naturally inhale when rotating the hands outward,
and exhale rotating the hands inward.

Drop your hands to your lap and feel the sensations in your hands and
fingers (you may even note the warmth and throbbing of your pulse in your
fingertips).   Imagine that you are gently exhaling down your arms and out
your fingers.  Do this for one or two breaths.

Repeat this practice every hour.

*This practice was adapted from the work by Terri Zucker and initially
developed by Ilse Middendorf to sense the rhythm and quality of the one's
breath as it comes and goes on its own.
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The distribution of Healthy Computing Email Tips is sponsored by the
Institute for Holistic Healing Studies and Human Resources.

Copyright 1998 Erik Peper, Ph.D. and Katherine Hughes Gibney