Breath

A short article on your own breath, on how you can take pauses between your hectic day and become centered.

BREATH puts you in the present and allows you to just be.

There may be times in your day where you want to take a pause, want to take a break and be by yourself. What if you cannot take that pause or the situation doesn’t let it ? Right at that moment, I want you to take your focus to your breath.

Thoughts might not slow down and allow you to go to your breath. I want you to stop opposing yourself and your thoughts and I want you to be very kind to yourself at that moment. Try to be still and let yourself slowly focus on your very ‘breath’.

Inhale slowly and count till 30 seconds , pause and keep your breath within you for 1 minute. Exhale slowly for 30 seconds and pause again for a minute. Repeat at least 5–6 times ! Do this cycle every time you feel stressed out and see the magic happening in 3 weeks.

Things will not magically change in a day, you can’t be a calmer person the next day you do this. What I need you to understand is seize every stressful moment of your day and put this practice in there to gain control of yourself and not let your mind to be in control.

Stress is created by your mind, by the situations around , but that stress is not you. Mind and you are two separate entities. Mind is a very powerful object that can both be your friend and your foe. It’s your awareness that can treat it with love or with rules to keep it in control.

It’s only us individuals who can manage ourselves — not your parents , your husband or your kids. An individual or a job or a love cannot be a reason or an excuse for stress. When many say out there happiness is within you, yes it is, it’s in the present and the breath is the key to pull you to the present.

You can also focus on a God or a object (water or clouds) of your liking if it calms you down and pulls you to the present.

When you are able to slow your thoughts down, focus on your breath ( or a gods image in your mind or a object that you like ) while continuing to cook, to feed your child, to work.

Negative thoughts of any kind going on in your mind makes your breath shallow or rapid, makes your muscles tensed sometimes. The response to routine stress is different for different individuals and you are the only person who can best figure it out.

You can use any moment to focus and make your breath deeper or slower deliberatively by breathe in — pause — breathe out — pause — Repeat ! Pausing 2–3 seconds between exhale and inhale also helps relax your nervous system and works like your reset button.

Deep breaths works like a feedback loop to counter stress and it works every time.

You can always do this in any place, situation you are in. If you have a place to lie down you can go ahead get into a half sleep/waking state where you are aware of your body and be aware of not slipping away into deep sleep. You can relax each part of your body while you take deep relaxed breaths. This process is called as ‘Yoga Nidra’ and has deep benefits to your body and mind.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Priyanka