Simple breathing exercise
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. ―Bamit Ray
👥 Serves: 1 person, 11-25 people, 2-10 people, 26-40 people, 41+ people
🎚 Difficulty: Easy
⏳ Total time: 1-10 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: A quiet place with no distractions
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Awareness, Positive Emotion
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Breathing, Calm, Centring, Mind-body-connection, Mindfulness, Self-awareness, Serenity
Simple breathing exercise
📝 Description
Tuning into the breath to control our minds.
The breath offers an easily accessible way to connect to your body because the breath is always with us and always alive. Sometimes it may feel very difficult to slow down our minds and find stillness. Focusing on your breath is one of the most effective tools to shift your attention from your mind to your body. This in turn helps you quickly take control of your mind, rather than become a victim of your own thoughts. Whenever you feel your thoughts are tightening their grip on your mind, turn to this quick exercise to regain control and focus.
Thanks to our fellow changemaker and facilitator Tissione Parmar for sharing this recipe with us.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Sit
Find a quiet place and sit comfortably.
Step 2 – Breathe in
Breathe in through your nose counting to 4. If it is too difficult you can change to 4 (breathing in), 6 (holding), 8 (breathing out).
Step 3 – Hold
Hold your breath counting to 8.
Step 4 – Breathe out
Slowly release your breath from your mouth counting to 10.
Step 5 – Repeat
Repeat several times until you feel grounded.
Step 6 – Variation: Connect with others
You can do the same exercise with another partner or more, with the purpose of tuning in with their breaths. Simply find a partner and sit crossed-legged opposite each other and look into each others’ eyes. Repeat steps 2-5 above and try to sync your breath with that of others. Eventually, you will not need to count anymore as your breaths are tuned in.