You can feel it in the air…..
that slight sense of unease that creeps up on you in November as we hurtle towards Christmas. Do I have enough time to get everything done? How can I possibly fit all these commitments into my day? The normal to do list grows to incorporate gift buying, extra food prep, and an extraordinary amount of social engagements.
It’s a good time to remind ourselves that we have a powerful tool to better manage this stressful time - our breath.
There are two aspects to being aware of our breathing. Taking full diaphragmatic breaths has a very positive physiological impact on all our body systems. Not just our respiration and circulatory systems but also our digestive and hormone systems.
And, we can also use our breath as a simple mindfulness technique to help slow down the monkey mind, allowing for more clarity and better decision making. That’s particularly helpful during time pressured periods.
What is diaphragmatic breathing?
When we use our diaphragm, (a cone shaped muscle separating the chest cavity from the abdominal organs) to breath it enables us a full inhalation of air into the lungs and a full exhalation also. That’s important to ensure we move as much oxygen around the body as possible, but it also impacts more broadly than that.
In this short clip, Dr Rosalba Courtney, a breath training specialist and researcher, talks about all the body systems that are impacted by diaphragmatic breathing.
Very importantly when it comes to managing the impacts of stress on our bodies, diaphragmatic breathing sends a message to our nervous system that says;
“you are OK, you don’t need to be in fight or flight mode now. You can stop releasing all those stress hormones like adrenalin.”
As the parasympathetic nervous system comes into play then your digestive and endocrine systems can function as they should.
The breath as a simple mindfulness technique you can use anywhere, anytime.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed as our brains try to process all the stimuli that we are exposed to on a day to day basis. However, if we allow ourselves time to step away from this busyness, even for a few minutes, we can recharge and cope better with the demands of our day.
Shifting your attention to the flow of your breath is an effective way to calm the mind and allow you to regroup before carrying on with your tasks. Stop what you are doing and tune in to your breath. You could even try mentally repeating the word inhale as you breathe in and mentally repeating the word exhale as you breathe out. Continue for a few minutes if you can or just as long as you can manage.
I love this little 3-minute clip from a Buddhist monk who explains how easy meditation can be if we simply focus on the breath. It’s worth a watch to hear his thoughts on how to “calm the monkey mind”.
I’ve yet to discover a way of escaping the frenetic busyness of November and December but an appropriate mantra could be “just keep breathing and carry on”.