Thursday 19 April 2018

3 breathing exercises to create calm in just a few minutes




Feeling stressed or even a little anxious? Try these exercises - I promise they won't take long and you really will feel more balanced and have greater clarity to get on with your day.

Feeling overwhelmed and stressed during the day can really become counter productive. You get stressed because you have so much to do and very little time between work, meetings, family commitments etc that sometimes you can feel like you are spinning. And stress from my experience can escalate quickly!

When I talk about stress, I refer to the story of the boiling frog, where in essence it is usually too late before we realise just how overwhelmed, anxious or stressed we are. This also becomes incredibly mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting - and to most people you end up just putting up with it until something breaks. This is where Arianna Huffington had her wake-up call and wrote about it in the book 'Thrive'. Moral of the story - don't wait until you are 'boiled' like the frog or collapse like Arianna.

So what can you do to help yourself remain calm and centred during the day? I know this sounds so strange but you can breathe your way better. So often we forget that we have been given this gift of breath that we don't seem to use very well in our modern lives. It wasn't until I started teaching yoga that I realised just how amazing out bodies are and how we are just not using our breath correctly and when we get stressed it impacts our breath and overall health.

SO LETS GET BACK TO BASIC'S - You can breathe your way to a more balanced mindset in just a few moments  - Try these 3 exercises:

All exercises begin with you taking a long deep inhale through the nose and then exhale through your nose. You can be sitting at your desk, break room, in the park or if you are lucky your office might have a yoga/meditation room. All exercises can also be done lying down.

1) Deep belly breathing - As you inhale through your nose, draw your breath right down to the bottom of your belly and then exhale through your nose. You will know you are doing it correctly when you see your belly expand. To make this easier place your hands just below your belly button.  Complete 12-15 rounds of this breathing technique.

2) Alterate nostril breathing - learning how to do this breathing exercise changed my life! There are lots of different ways to do this exercise but I am going to give you really simple version.

Close your eyes, place your finger on your right nostril to close it and inhale through only the left nostril and exhaling through the left nostril. Then do the opposite, place your finger on the left nostril and focus on inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the right nostril. Repeat this 12 times each nostril or for about 5 minutes and feel your mind become more balanced almost instantly. This technique balances the left and the right sides of the brain - so it really is worth the investment!

3) Lengthen your exhale - One way to help manage your breathing and reduce stress is to lengthen your exhale. Start by inhaling for 3 counts and exhaling for 3 counts and then gradually increase the exhale to 4 counts, then 5 counts and then 6 counts. Try not to push yourself with this one, if you can only increase your exhale to 4 counts you are still getting the full benefits of this exercise. Repeat 12 times.








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