Your breath is a simple yet powerful tool that is always accessible. No matter who you are, where you are or what what might be triggering stress, you can learn to use your breathing to switch yourself out of the instinctive “fight or flight” mode and back into a healthy, grounded state.
Due to bad posture, anxiety and stress we can easily develop the poor habit of limiting our breathing to just our upper body, using only our secondary respiratory muscles. Not only does this greatly reduce the sheer volume of healthy air we take in, but it also signals something deep in our body, a holdover from our more primitive origins, telling our nervous system that we are in danger, perhaps akin to being chased by a tiger! This in turn creates even more stress, thereby perpetuating a gradual decline in health and happiness.
With this one simple breathing exercise you can turn all of that around. Watch the video below for an easy set of tools you can use to assess your breathing habits and then make the conscious change that will improve your well being. You will be surprised how easy it is to make a positive change in any stressful moment!
