With a busy and active lifestyle that keeps me constantly on the go, it can become troublesome as you get lost in the day-to-day of running your business and working with others and running a household and well, you get the idea.
I often found myself becoming increasingly overwhelmed with a never-ending to do list and endless problems to solve and often, this led to me feeling lost and sometimes, without focus or direction.
I started to seek out solutions to be able to step back without having to stop.
Challenging, right?
When it comes to the end of the day, this is when I perform a lot of self evaluation and enjoy time to reflect and perhaps research things just like this in order to move forward or solve problems for myself.
It was during one of these periods one evening that I came across a blog post about breathwork and breathing exercises.
Sounds a little cliché, right?
To slow down, you need to breathe.
I mean, we all breathe – all day, every day – unknowingly. It’s an impulse, it’s automatic, it’s survival and nothing more. Or is it? This is kind of how my line of thinking started. Honestly, when I read more into it and realised all the benefits that could be accessed, it clicked that this could be, and would be, something that – for me – would be truly transformative.
I read that your breath should be regarded as your anchor to the present.
Stick with me on this one.
If you are using your breath as an anchor to the present moment, you automatically become more aware of your current thoughts and feelings and can deal with them more effectively. Without doing so, they either become ignored or suppressed and can ultimately spiral into negative feelings of stress, worry, anxiety – the list goes on. The purpose of focusing on your breathing is to stop in the moment, bring yourself back down to Earth through breathwork and to stop negative emotions from gaining momentum.
Sounds simple, right? Well, it is!
As I’ve got older (and arguably wiser!) I’ve become more mindful, and definitely more aware of ways and means to practice mindfulness, and breathwork is definitely at the top of my list.
Some methods I use frequently are: counting breaths, deep breathing, and the 4-4-4 method (whereby you inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and exhale for 4 seconds).
There are lots of podcasts incorporating breathwork into mindfulness, and YouTube videos you can watch that will demonstrate the best ways to breathe in order to combat your emotional responses and regain control, and I’d highly recommend them.
Until next time, keep breathing, and keep going!
