Stiff To Fit

BREATHING

Breathing is instinctive, right?

Since we’re alive we must know how to breathe. That seems obvious.

If we are living a calm, peaceful life with healthy bodies, have a roof over our heads, food on the table, clean running water, a positive social support system and no stress, no worries, no anxieties & no pandemic (!) then perhaps we all would be breathing optimally and we wouldn’t need to discuss tips to better breathing.

I don’t live that life. And I wasn't taught how to breathe properly in school, were you?

Understanding how to breathe more effectively will:

*help us feel calmer
*better support our body's functioning
*be more able to handle whatever curveball life is throwing us.

Your body (and mind) will thank you!

Here are 3 easy tips to improve your breathing:

Tip #1:
Breathing is a wave-inhale, exhale, inhale exhale. The inhale/exhale (breath cycle) creates physical change in the body which we can feel if we know to pay attention.

To generalize:

On the inhale, the body responds by “making room” for the air i.e. an expansion happens in our torso area.

On the exhale, a contraction happens in our torso area.

Go ahead and take 3-5 breath cycles and see if you can feel both the expansion and contraction of your body as you breathe.

Tip #2
Having trouble feeling any physical sensations?

An easy way to become more aware of your breath is to lay on the floor on your back. Your knees can be bent or straight, either works although most folks prefer their knees to be bent to support their backs.

Put both your hands on your belly. Inhale through your nose and see if you can feel your hands move up towards the ceiling or out towards the sides. Find an easy flow of in breath and out breath and keep this flow going for a minute or two.

Stop and assess.

How do you feel?

Most people report a greater sense of relaxation physically and a mental calmness or "slowing down" of their minds.

If you don't feel your hands moving, try putting a medium size book on your belly. Can you get the book to lift towards the ceiling on your inhale? And can the book lower back down on your exhale? If yes, that's it!

Becoming more aware of your breathing takes practice.
Keep trying. You'll get it.
Sometimes people feel a little light-headed or "spacey" when they consciously breathe like this. Be safe getting up.

Roll to one side and pause, then press yourself to sitting and pause, then slowly make your way to standing and pause.

Tip #3
To calm your body even more, breathe in through your nose and out through your nose like you're smelling something wonderful. Freshly baked bread or chocolate chip cookies? Fresh flowers or a beautiful perfume/cologne?

Some folks call this “yoga breathing” which activates the part of your nervous system signaling "all is well, no saber tooth tigers or horrible pandemics approaching".

Breathing more consciously is an excellent first step to working better with your body.

Start Now

When I work with clients, we discuss and set goals. Then comes an action plan i.e. determining the possible steps involved to achieve their goals followed by where the client wants to start.

I’ve found that clients can get stuck here. They have established clearly defined goals and know what action steps they want to take and then they …………stop.

Whoa! You might ask why does that happen? Are the action steps too big? Are the goals not what the clients really want? Are my clients unmotivated? In my experience, several things can get in the way of the clients moving forward. First is actually creating a new habit. Changing behavior takes brain cells i.e. emotional, mental and physical energy. Many of my clients come to me running on empty, stressed out by the both pace and the demands of their lives. Using more brain cells sounds well, honestly, horrible to them. The second thing which can happen is that they are very motivated to discuss their goals and create action steps but want to jump in the deep end and do everything today! We see this kind of mindset in January each year with folks setting “resolutions”, going full tilt towards an important goal only to abandon 4-6 weeks later and ending up feeling worse about themselves than January 1st when they started. What’s the answer?

Start now.

Any energy expended on behalf of your goal whether emotional, mental, physical or spiritual helps.