Deep Breath in.

Holy cow can you believe its November 1st!!!! This morning I woke up with the worst headache that proceeded to last until noon. I blamed the fact that we stayed up late watching Hocus Pocus and snacking on cupcakes and brownies :) I spent my morning trying to recenter and clear away the throbbing from my head. I made my favorite veggie soup, which is literally chicken broth with tons of ginger, potato, carrot, onion, celery, and brocolli, salt & pepper. Its so easy to make and always makes me feel better! I drank lots of water, tidy’d up the apartment, cuddled with my pup while I read, took him for two walks and played at the park. It was at the park that I realized how busy my mind was and I think that’s what was causing the ache. Ive been reading the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” which was recommended to me by a yoga teacher. The book is easy to read and informative about money, but ultimately it has been stressing me out. I realized since I started reading this book I’ve been in my head trying to strategize ways to grow our families wealth. Which is great, but at the same time thinking too much takes up a lot of space. Lately the lesson life seems to be teaching me is to listen to my body, surrender, trust myself, and trust the Divine. I guess I’m trying to find that happy medium where I am using my mind as a tool to assist me as I follow my heart, instead of purely listening to my mind and letting my thoughts be my guide. Can anyone else relate to this?? What has been helping me find my balance is my BREATH. Learning to breath deeper, to connect to my breath, and to control it has made all the difference. The main focus of my yoga classes are always the breath and I usually try to include pranayama techniques. I absolutely notice the difference in my life when I am not consciously breathing throughout the day vs. when I do. Here’s a very simple technique that you can use at any point in your day to connect to your breath, calm your nervous system, and clear your mind.

Sit in a comfortable seat or stand. Place both hands on your belly. Imagine there is a deflated red balloon in your belly. Slowly start to breathe in through your nose, lips sealed. Imagine you are filling the balloon up with air. You’ll start to feel your belly rise and expand. As you breathe out, lips sealed, imagine the balloon deflating and letting all the air out. Try to make your breath in equal to your breath out. Slow and controlled pace. Long breath in. Long breath out. Continue for 10 rounds.

*Try not to expand your rib cage, but let the expansion happen in the belly.

*Once you get the hang of this, try this technique again but this time place one hand on your belly and one hand on the center of your chest. Try not to move the hand on your chest. That hand remains still, while you feel the hand on your belly rise and fall with your breath.

This deep belly breath utilizes the full capacity of our lungs. Most of us, myself including, tend to breath only in our chest filling up the top portion of our lungs. When we breath into the belly we fill up the lower portion of our lungs as well! We are also strengthening the diaphragm, the main muscle of breathing! All of this helps increase our vitality, clears our mind, and helps bring our body into balance! How cool is that! Give it a try and lmk what you think :)