How can breathing help you? Are you anxious? Overwhelmed? Stressed?
We get it, we have been there. Having different levels of anxiety and stress can sometimes stop you right where you are and make it hard to begin or finish many tasks. If and when you are feeling this way, breathing has been proven to calm your mind and help you think more clearly.
Here are 6 benefits from breathing:
- Reducing anxiety levels
- Lower cortisol levels
- Improved mood
- Increased focus
- Slower heart rate
- Better quality of sleep
Research has shown that in different situations, different emotions arise and impact the way we breathe. Changing how we breathe can change the way we feel.
Breathing allows you to recenter and refocus your mind. Not just any old breathing though. Deep mindful breathing. This is a core practice. Taking a moment to pause your day, be present, and breathe. It takes less than a minute for most to cue their brains to focus and be calmer, imagine if you dedicated 5-10 minutes instead of just one minute.
How do you use this exercise?
Breathe in as the circles grow, breathe out as the circles shrink, repeat this pattern. Build your way up to being able to do this for 5-10 minutes a day. Maybe make a commitment to do this 5-10 minutes a day, three times a day.
We want to challenge you to use this during a transition in your day, assign this to a time in your evening routine.
Have you stopped to breathe today?
Written by: Kenitres Wiley, M.S., LPC.
Sunshine and Hurricane Counseling
