Life is crazy. Days are busy, hectic and full of things to do, places to go and just plain stuff. It can be almost impossible to catch a breath sometimes. But why should life not allow us to take just a second and breathe? Something vital to health and almost forgotten about these days. I mean, who has time to breathe?

I challenge you to stop what you’re doing and take a minute to breathe. Close your eyes, inhale through your nose and out through your mouth. Take 5 breaths. Go for it and then you can continue reading below…

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Welcome back. If you’re like most people your 5 breaths probably took about 20-30 seconds. 4-6 seconds each breath cycle, the inhale taking about 1-2 seconds and the exhale 3-4. Now I want you to simply slow down. Still take 5 breaths but count to 4 on the inhale and 8 on the exhale. Eyes closed, 5 breaths, go for it…

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Better. Those slower, deeper breaths probably took 40-50 seconds. If you count like most people, slightly faster than actual time, the inhale was about 3 and the exhale was about 6-7. Let’s try one more time. This time inhale as slowly and deeply as you can followed by a super slow and even exhale. Same concept, eyes closed, 5 breaths…

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Nicely done. You’ve just stopped to breathe for a minute. Both literally and figuratively you’ve pushed the pause button for 1 minute and called up your relaxation response. Hopefully you feel a bit more relaxed and calm and listened to your body for just a few moments. Use this trick anytime you need to just stop for a minute and center yourself. Life can get crazy and we very rarely can avoid it but we can always find a minute to stop and breathe. If nothing more than just giving us a minute to ourselves to regroup, use 1 minute breathing anytime you just need a little break.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!