“We breathe all day, every day without thinking about it—but something truly transformative can happen when the breath becomes something we do think about.” – Maggie Seaver.
In addition to my previous post, I wanted to stay on the topic of breathing and how it contributes to mindfulness and wellbeing. I came across an awesome blog style website called realsimple.com, they have a bunch of helpful resources ranging from saving money to recipes, but of course the category that stood out to me most was the “health” tab, category “mental health”. Clicking this “mental health” category opened me up to a World of self-care and mental wellness articles. And of course, I found a post strictly on breathing exercises!!
The article is named “5 Mindfulness Breathing Exercises You Can Do Anywhere, Anytime”, and Maggie Seaver (author) lays out each mindfulness breathing exercise, the benefits of each and the ways in which you should complete them.
The last five days I have practiced each of them once a day and found the ones I felt best suited me and the ones that I am whiling to give more time to. The two I found most helpful in taking me to a state of calmness were, “deep breathing” and “2-4 breathing”, I am excited to further use these techniques and share them with others in the hope they too help bring calmness to their lives! Give them a try! 🙂
Breathing in the classroom:
In addition, I feel that trying these five breathing techniques each week in a classroom would be a great way to introduce the benefits of using our own breath to calm our nervous system to students. You could introduce them individually, then once the students are familiar with each technique you could give them the option of using the one that best suits them.Â