Breath is Your Superpower...

Inspiration

Aug 10

Use it to your advantage.

Your breath is the most powerful way to send messages to your brain that you’re safe and secure. But, it can also send signals that you’re in flight or flight (read: anxious, stressed, irritated), likely without you even knowing it.

If your breathing is shallow, quick, incomplete, and unsteady, your brain gets a message that there’s danger, even if you’re, say, relaxing on the couch. You may not feel outright panic, but maybe you have insomnia, are jittery, or it feels like there’s constantly a rock in the middle of your chest.

Flip the switch.

Try this simple practice to access your breath and connect mind and body:

Lower or close your eyes.

Exhale whatever air is left in your lungs in this moment. Take 3 slow, cleansing breaths.

With your hands on your stomach, slowly breathe in fully, then exhale fully.

Move your hands to your ribs, then slowly inhale and exhale, feeling your ribs expand and deflate.

Travel your hands up to your heart, and steadily inhale and exhale into the middle of your chest.

Stay at your heart for another round of inhalation and exhalation, then move back down to your ribs, then down to your belly, hands connecting at each position.

Starting at your belly, ride your next inhale upwards like a wave, moving smoothly up from your stomach, to ribs, to heart. Exhale slowly down back down, moving from heart, to ribs, to stomach.

Take your next deep inhale into your heart, taking the inhale down from heart, to ribs, to belly. Exhale steadily, moving from stomach, to ribs, and ending back at your heart.