The doors slid open to his new assigned quarters, it was small, but it was his, he’d have privacy for the first time in over three years. One of the perks of being on a station is that there was an abundance of quarters compared to a Star ship, he wouldn’t have to hot bunk or share a room, for the foreseeable future at least. Stepping inside Darion dropped to the chair and lay down sighing. He had only been on the station for a few hours now and the emotional deluge that swam around it was deafening. Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed his mind attempting to quell the emotions of others and focus solely on his own.

Closing his eyes, he relaxed his muscles and focused on his breathing, each time his mind wondered he’d bring it back to focusing on the breath. Concentrating on his breathing he placed a hand on his chest and pushed the breathing to his diaphragm, taking long deep breath and stopping his chest from moving engaged the diaphragm to take over most of the work. When he exhaled, he would try to sink his abdomen close to his spine as he could without tensing encouraging the use of the full range of the lungs. Once the rhythm was established, he thought of nothing but inhaling and exhaling.

After a few minutes the process became easier, and his thoughts became less and less prone to wondering at this stage he knew it was time to move on to the next stage he began by counting and timing his breaths, shifting from an even in and out to inhaling over four seconds, holding for a full count of seven seconds before a slow exhale over a full eight seconds the counting helped his analytical part of his brain focus one something else other than breathing. Keeping up with the rhythm he continued until the lightheaded sensation of the breathing pattern began to take hold

Riding the sensation Darion focused on his own emotions and brought them to the surface. He used them to push back the surrounding emotions of everyone else. Being extremely careful not to push them outside of himself he used them as a shield of sorts. Holding them steady he returned to the initial breathing exercise, smiling a little as the relief of silence took hold.

It was an old technique that most Betazoids shunned, many felt a sense emptiness or wrongness if they couldn’t read those around them, Darion found it a source of relief, however. Coming into his gifts at the age of six, far younger than he should have, he was forced to undergo extensive training to help both shield himself and others after the fact rather than being prepared for them when most come into their gifts around adolescence. Darion’s rather explosive entry into his emphatic and telepathic power made him unbalanced. The meditation schools weren’t sure if his emphatic gifts would have formed naturally as it did for some or whether his tumultuous entry into the Psionic world gave rise to it, but he was very apt at projecting emotions as well as having difficulty filtering those of others nothing unheard of on Betazed but it was unusual for an inter-species offspring such as himself being half human.

His eyes fluttering open Darion felt relaxed for the first time in days. Meditation was going to have to be a larger focus for him that it has in the past, being so close to so many people would be the biggest test he’d have to go through since he first had to wrestle with his gifts and learn how to use it safely. For now, though, he was good, though a good stiff drink wouldn’t go down amiss. Checking the time, however he dismissed the thought. It was far too late in the evening had he’d be best served getting some sleep to prepare himself for tomorrow. For tomorrow would bring him new challenges, and opportunities.