Don't forget to breathe

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Why should I take time to breathe?

There are so many times when it is easy to be overwhelmed by stress, anxiety and the pressures of daily life. It is often during these challenging times that we can feel worried, fearful and anxious. We can’t see any solutions clearly and we can feel that we are completely on our own and that we are somehow inadequate for feeling the way that we do…. All of these thoughts and so many more can cause us to feel overwhelmed.

At the moment life is particularly challenging for a lot of people so I wanted to offer some guidance that would go some way towards us all collectively feeling calmer, enhancing our sense of connection to ourselves and each other and also to provide a shared experience as a reminder that we are all in this together.

It is really important to our own personal self-care that, when we feel overwhelmed or out of control or like when we can’t cope and life is too big, that we take some time to sit quietly and breathe deeply.

You really do have time

Often people say to me “but I don’t have time for myself” and my answer is always the same:“You do really”. It’s important that you take some time, even if you just start with 5 minutes. A good idea is to start at the very beginning of your day, before your mind has a chance to remember the stresses of the previous day or to focus on any future challenges that you may face.

How to be still

I know only too well from personal experience, that initially it can feel really difficult to stop the mental chatter that goes on in your head but I promise that with patience and practice, this becomes easier and more achievable. The main thing is that you stop, close your eyes and breathe. If your mind starts to drift, that is natural but refocus it to only concentrate on your breathing and nothing else.

Another thing I noticed when I first started to practice stillness and conscious breathing was that I had a lot of physical distractions too. I became fidgety and uncomfortable but again, if this happens then just bring your focus back to your breathing and nothing else.

Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth as calmly as possible. It can help to mentally count the number of breaths that you take in and breathe out eg. Breathing in is 1 and breathing out is 2. Set yourself a simple target of 60 to begin with and then gradually, as your practice becomes more familiar, increase it to whatever you feel is best for you.

Now it’s your turn

This practice will make a huge difference to how you feel. It will enable you to feel calmer, more balanced and provide you with a more positive sense of security and emotional safety. Your mental wellbeing will improve too and you will feel more at peace.

So even if you start with only 5 minutes, make a promise to yourself that you will begin today to proactively plan some precious self-care and make time for yourself to feel better by being still and breathing deeply.

IN PRACTICE

If you’d like to practice stillness through breathing exercises, you can either join me every Monday morning at 8am GMT on Zoom, or purchase my recordings of breathing exercises: