Additional exercise: Deep breathing

Now we’re going to do a mindfulness activity together. This one is really simple. It’s all about deep breathing. It’s something you can practice at home, for five minutes a day, right before you go to bed. And remember, the more you practice, the easier it will get. So I’m going to demonstrate how to do this breathing exercise with Paul, and you can practice with us at home.

So Paul, let’s get comfortable. You can kind of shake your hands out a little, roll your shoulders back and forth. Yep, put your feet to the ground. You can tap them a little. Better feels comfortable for you. Sit up straight. If you want you put your hands on your belly.

So oftentimes when we’re feeling stressed, as we already talked about, you breathe into your upper chest when we really want those deep breaths to go into our belly. So if you put your fingers like this on your belly, and I’m going to count to three, and when I start counting, you’ll inhale to the count of 1, 2, 3,and hold your breath at the top.

And exhale, 1,2,3 Remember not to count too fast when you’re doing this at home.

Let’s try that one more time. So inhale. 1,2,3

And exhale 1,2,3 Do you feel your belly moving up and down? Wonderful. And how does this feel? It feels coming. Awesome, why don’t we count in our heads, and we’ll do it together. We’ll do two rounds together.

So for those of you at home, you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable.

Wow. It’s so calming, I love it. So again, try this at home, an practice. And remember at first it might feel a bit uncomfortable. But the more you practice, the better it will feel.