You certainly don’t need me to tell you that breathing is important. But what you might not know is that breathing has many components that you can control in order to affect certain processes in your body. No one has time to read a whole treatise on the subject from me right now, so forgive me if I just skip to the good part and give you some tips to help with stress this season and I promise to add a page to my website where I will talk about it further should you be interested.
When stressed or anxious, what we want to do is get that build-up out, so focusing on exhales is important here.
Find yourself a quiet spot, sit down with your feet flat on the floor, back straight and close your eyes. Spend a few moments settling in and notice where you feel that tension. Belly? Chest? Head? Visualize that area as a rumbly black rain cloud.
Take a deep breath into your chest and hold it for a maximum of 30 seconds. During that time, visualize the black cloud gathering there and perhaps getting more dense or just getting larger and then SIGH it out with as big a whoosh as you can…like you’re heaving a big Scarlett O’Hara sigh. And you’re visualizing that you are blowing wisps of the black cloud out of your body.
Do this several times in a row (8 times often gets it done) until you yawn… when you yawn, you will have broken the cycle of excess and should notice that you feel calmer.
If it causes dizziness, don’t hold your breath for that long, or skip that part altogether and simply sigh 8 times in a row while taking time to let the cloud build up in between.