Feeling overwhelmed? Take a moment to breathe and reboot.
Rather than suggest a complicated breathing pattern or mindfulness routine that requires you step away from your day to center yourself, let’s simplify it. Since it often isn’t practical for us to step away to engage in a mindfulness meditation or breathing practice in order to ground, it’s valuable to know some simple grounding practices for any time, anywhere. In these moments, we recommend you take a few seconds to “breathe and reboot”.
Is it really that simple? Yes and no. There may be larger things at play in your life that need to be addressed. However, when you feel powerful emotions, one of the best things you can do is take a moment to breathe.
The Practice:
Inhale deeply into your belly and have a long slow exhale.
It’s that simple.
Ensure your exhale is longer than the inhale. To help slow down the exhale, some folks find it helpful to imagine exhaling through a straw.
By elongating the exhale, we activate the parasympathetic nervous system. That’s a fancy way of saying we activate our relaxation nervous system. Doing this a few times in a row, or even just once, will slow the heart rate and shift your nervous system into a state of rest and relaxation.
Next time you feel stressed, take a moment to breathe and reboot!