Sutra 1.12 Non Attachment
https://integralyogamagazine.org/patanjalis-words-the-nature-of-yoga-practice/
Don't attach to the outcome enjoy the process.

Diaphragmatic breathing is helpful with chronic back back pain.We will rate her back pain and her mood on a scale from 1 to 10.I will teach my client deep diaphragmatic breathing .she will practice everyday for 5 minutes and write down in a journal daily what she notices in her back, we will check in after one week, we will rate her pain again.

55 yo female with a history of chronic back pain and depression.She is very driven an goal oriented, as an engineer she is very used to measuring outcomes and comparing .The concept of non attachment is important because it illustrates the importance of practice but also not to be attached to the outcome to be able to enjoy the process and to be in the moment.It gives her an opportunity to experience her breathing and her body.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936076/

I envisioned that I will teach my client deep diaphragmatic breathing, laying down and sitting up and have her practice it every day for 1 week and take notes.Then I will check in with her again just to see what she noticed without any expectations on the outcome just to let her explore the breath and her body to see if she noticed any changes in the week.My client is any engineer she is very analytical and skeptical, so I expected that she would have doubt about how deep breathing could help with her chronic back pain. I did send her the above mentioned article on yoga inputs in the management of chronic pain. She appreciated the article so she could read a study and not only take my word for it.

I used the hatha branch of integral yoga, deep diaphragmatic breathing as a way to focus her mind and to relieve stress and anxiety.

I meet with the client and explained deep diaphragmatic breathing together first I had her practice while laying down then sitting up. She does have some yoga experience but no experience with breathing practices, she found the practice laying down much easier and she decided that this would be the practice she would try out for herself for one week. She did remark that she thought one week would be to short to notice any difference ,but we talk about non attachment and not having any exceptions just to enjoy the process and if she did not notice any difference that this would be ok too. It would be just like a little experiment and since she measures a lot at work she actually enjoyed the idea of keeping time and score, because this seemed more objective to her and she liked having the article as a reference.

I told her that she could pick her own time and if she wanted to start with a minute practice and slowly increase it to 5 minutes over time that would be perfectly fine. She did not have to meet any expectations and she could decide if she wanted to practice for a week or if she liked it she could continue longer to see if she was able to notice a difference then. Since she has an exercise routine from her physical therapist for her back pain, I suggested she could add her breathing practice on to her PT practice or any time she wanted to, I suggested she could have her hands on her abdomen and chest to get more feedback from her body while breathing and she has a difficult time to be in tune with her body most of the time, my hope is that she learns to read the signals of her body over time. She agreed to meet with me again after 1 week of practice.

Yes I did apply my plan as intented, she really enjoyed having options e.g she could lay down or sit up, she could modify how long she wanted to practice deep breathing and when she wanted to practice. She was a bit skeptical ,if she was able to notice any change of her back pain by simply practicing breathing for up to 5 minutes.She agreed to the plan, she liked that there are some studies on chronic pain and breathing practice, she enjoyed having a SMART goal so she can track her progress, if there was one and at the same time there were no set expectations as she is someone who sets a lot of expectations for herself and others and gets pretty anxious if expectations are not met.yes the goal was met, while she did not report any change in her back pain, she noticed, when she was doing the deep breathing she was able to be more relaxed and calm, no change in pain yet but she will cont.

No I did not have to adapt anything as my plan was to give options and set no expectations she was agreeable to meet back in a week even though she thought that she would not be able to see much change, but when I ensured her that there are no expectations she should just enjoy the practice she was able to agree and to let go of any expectations. I learned that it is important to have some studies at hand because being able to present her with a study convinced her that it was worth to give this a try and that she is not wasting her time with a useless practice. To have her laying down to practice was very helpful because breathing while sitting up did not work for her she was not able to do the practice sitting up she found that too difficult so being able to give a client options is very important.Letting go of expectations for her was major and I am sure will help her in daily life.

Yes I will approach the situation in the same way, it think it is important to give options, to set SMART goals. I think the concept of non attachment to an outcome is critical as many people have very high exceptions for themselves and this can get into the way of finding enjoyment in the practice, when a practice is enjoyable the client is much more likely to continue with the practice on their own.While she did not think she would be able to notice any change in 1 week she surprised herself by stating that she did feel calmer and she was practicing at night in bed she noted that she was able to fall asleep faster.She said that she actually enjoyed the practice a lot and she wants to continue with it on her own. I got the sense that she felt empowered by the practice and I am curious if over time she will also notice a decrease in her pain.She did make to comment that when she is focusing or her breathing she is not focusing on anything else so that is also a distraction to her pain and anxiety .