Harvey’s Blog

BREATH OF WELLNESS:

CONNECTING MIND AND BODY FOR ELEVATED HEALTH

 Let’s talk a little bit about your breath.

I often work with my clients on their breath for a number of different reasons and help them to figure out ways that noticing their breath can be beneficial for them.

REGULATE ANXIETY

I often have clients come in and they tell me they’ve been struggling with anxiety for many years. When I ask if they’ve ever had someone work with them on their breath they say “yes” and then proceed to show me that they take a big, deep breath that makes their chest rise. While it seems like that might be an effective method, that upward-moving breath actually activates the nervous system.

When I teach my meditation courses I often find that people struggle with getting their breath down into their belly because in our society it’s really promoted for us to walk around with these tight bellies pulled in.

The reason why this is important is that breathing down (instead of up into your chest) helps you to begin to regulate your nervous system instead of waking it up.

To start practicing breathing down, instead of up, lie on your back and place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly and be mindful of the movement as you slowly breathe in and out.

DEVELOP A MINDFULNESS PRACTICE

Speaking of being mindful, when we tune into our breath we are present with this exact moment so we’re not holding on to what the breath was before or what our next breath might be like.

If you begin to pay attention to things like the length of your inhale to the length of your exhale, noticing the depth of your breath, noticing if it’s smooth and even, or if you hold it or find that it’s choppy at any point – just really noticing anything you can about it, then you’re fully present in this moment with your breath.

In doing that we begin to create this mindful awareness of this exact moment and cultivate that meditative quality.

The act of mindfulness helps you to reduce reactivity and impulsivity. You learn to kind of pause and be mindful about what’s going on with you emotionally, mentally, and physically before you’re choosing how you want to respond.

Creating that little brief moment of mindful space before we choose how to proceed in any given moment allows us to really cultivate a better life quality, our relationships flourish because we’re not being as reactive.

You can utilize what we know about breath and mindfulness to work toward total wellness or optimizing that balance between mind body and spirit.