CALM: Simple, Effective Breathing Techniques For Family Wellness

HERE’S 3 SIMPLE FOUNDATIONAL BREATHING PRACTICES FROM THE HEART MATH INSTITUTE TO TAKE YOUR PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

1. BASIC HEART FOCUSED BREATHING *

Start all the heart math practices with doing this or do it on its own. Basically you bring your attention in the center area of your chest – the area of the heart/Heart Chakra.

Just imagine your breath is flowing in and out of this area. You can place your hand on your chest if this helps. Breathe a little slower and deeper than usual finding a breathing pace/rhythm that is relaxing. Inhaling and exhaling to a count of 4 or 5 is a place many people start to find their rhythm. This technique helps calm the stress response decreasing the impact of stress on our body, mind and spirit.

* Use this whenever you think of it in the day to ground & calm – the more you do this during the day the more this becomes a habit for you to do when you are experiencing stress.

PARENTS: try this when you feel triggered with your kids/partner to increase the chance of you saying/doing something you’ll be proud of.

2. CALM - EASE TECHNIQUE

STEP 1 – As always, start with the Basic - Heart-focused Breathing

STEP 2 – Next, with each inhale breathe in a feeling of CALM and with each exhale breathe out a feeling of EASE. *

STEP 3 – Set your intention to anchor the feelings as you continue with your work, challenging experience or interaction.

* You could replace Calm/Ease with Peace/Gratitude
, Compassion/Understanding, Gratitude/Acceptance, Peace/Love, etc.

Note: As you practice you may find certain words feel more powerful/yummy to you, use those. (-:

Use this to create pathways for calm and resiliency in your brain and physiology. Emotions are like rocket fuel for creating change in the brain.

Some specific times to use this include: before an event/situation that feels stressful to you, after a stressful event to reset your nervous system out of fight-flight-freeze mode, whenever you notice you are stressed/anxious about something to get you feeling centered, calm and grounded again.

PARENTS: it is a real gift to you and your fam to do this in the morning before the kids get up or in the car just before you pick up your kids from school. Helps you to be present and sets the tone.

3. QUICK COHERENCE TECHNIQUE

STEP 1 – Start with Basic - Heart-focused breathing for 5 -10 breaths

STEP 2 – Generate a regenerative Heart - feeling. The regenerative feelings include gratitude/appreciation, feeling of well-being, peace and love. To do this bring to mind someone you care deeply about or who cares deeply about you and let yourself really feel the appreciation, compassion, love, care in your heart. Often it is felt as a gentle warmth and a softness in the heart area.

Any special memory will work too as long as you can re-experience the felt emotions. It’s kind of like “going to your happy place”. A memory of a favorite time in nature or of being moved by the beauty of a piece of art or music works well too.

Have fun with this and remember the mind doesn’t know what’s real or imagined so let yourself adjust memories as you like for maximum enjoyment!