Breathe motherfucker!

Breathing is underrated. If you are someone like me who has been dealing with a lot of anxiety, it may not come as a surprise. Breathing is one of our superpowers as long as we are living things. There are many methods to deal with anxiety and depression, but what mostly unites them is simply breathing consciously and deeply. Yea, yea, what else is new? How many times have we dismissed it without giving it a go? I know I have many times. Take a breather! Breathing just might be that switch in your brain to make everything better, accessible at any time.

Hey, I am breathing right now, we all do, automatically! The quality of our breathing is quite important, but we rarely notice it or think about it. Yet the state of our breathing can reflect the state of our mind and our well being. For example, I’ve noticed that once my anxiety strikes, my breathing becomes more shallow or I even catch myself holding my breath since I feel jolts of panic from my fight or flight response upon every breath that I resist. So basically, I fight myself/smother myself. Which is the opposite of what I should be doing, such as learning how to extend my breath and extend my life (watch the video, it will make you smile at some point)

There are many ways we can extend our breathing. When I first heard the wise words from Hof above, I kept thinking of the last time I went swimming and how after being in the water for a while my breathing relaxed, found a rhythm and deepened. Similar to running in the past. Or even now I think of the walks in the forest and how delicious those deep gulps of fresh air are. Or how while learning meditation the main focus revolves around breathing and noticing how each breath is just a tiny bit different. Here we are, many of us, trapped at home, stressed out about the future and our loved ones. Stupid virus! Yet, we all should exercise our lungs and calm our minds, now more than ever!

And we can, even while stranded indoors! I challenge you to find and do some type of breathing exercises, perhaps open the window and let some fresh air in your home if you feel safe to do so! I recently began doing Wim’s crazy warrior breathing, which is quite intense, but so worth it as I can immediately witness changes within my body, and it’s proven to help strengthen the immune system as well. Give it a go?