One of the most important elements to good health is how you fuel your body. Let’s talk about how you can make sure the fuel you are using is the best it can be!
Millions of people – somewhere in the 50 – 70 million range in America alone – have sleep problems. Geez. That’s a lot of tossing and turning. A billion-dollar industry if pillow, mattress, medications, lotions and potions, and doctor visits are added up.
Aside from those of us who can’t turn off late night TV, Netflix, or those who choose to lean over their cell phones all night, there are those who just can’t get to sleep.
Body in bed.
Eyes closed.
Brain spinning, or brain worried about not going to sleep.
Now that’s really going to help.
Not.
The book, Breath – The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor, continues to amaze me. After writing about it recently, I continued to peel back the layers of Nestor’s discoveries and personal experiences.
My copy is the most highlighted, underlined, dogeared book I’ve ever read. Even the appendix is riveting. Every breathing human should have a copy – just saying.
Today, I want to revisit the box breathing technique I shared with you HERE and the 4-7-8 Breathing technique. Both breathing patterns can relax you to sleep.
BOX BREATHING
Decathletes and Navy SEALs use breathing techniques such as this to calm down, slow pulses, and increase focus. You can do it in any situation, and it’s easy:
Inhale to a count of 4; hold 4; exhale 4; hold 4. Repeat.
To increase the body’s relaxation response, lengthen the exhalation to this pattern:
Inhale to a count of 4; hold 4; exhale 6; hold 2. Repeat.
The longer exhalation assists the body to relax deeply enough for sleep.
4-7-8 BREATHING
Dr. Andrew Weil, one of my favorite wellness gurus, made this technique famous as it encourages the body into a state of deep relaxation, allowing for sleep.
I am bringing rose buds, African daisies, and chive flowers into the house, just to bring that spring vibe indoors.
My Aussi and Kiwi readers, I know, are now nestling into the fall season of harvest: but spring has sprung in the Northern Hemisphere! We are just now setting out new plants in anticipation of colorful blossoms and produce to come.
Ah, the faith of a farmer – gardener!
It seems to touch us all. My regular trips to the local garden center are showing every age, socio-economic level, race, and gender walking the isles of seedlings, young blooms, fertilizer, chips, and bags of “dirt” as we all seek the color and promise of outdoor life in the coming months.
No longer are we indulging in out-of-season fruit grown in South and Central America. Our strawberries are coming from the United States and, man, are they sweet!
Our local strawberry fields are ready for customers. My neighbor sent me a picture this morning of her cardboard flat filled with ripe strawberries after just a short time of easy picking.
Are visions of strawberry cakes, pies, layered truffles, and jam filling your head?
Not mine.
I’m relishing every bite of fresh berries possible.
Sporting an average of 4 calories each, strawberries are a filling, SWEET, food and are satisfying and good for the body. Woohoo!
A quick check on their nutritional benefits HERE will remind you why strawberries are so beneficial. To summarize:
Strawberries are 91% water and just 7% carbohydrates – 26% of the carbohydrate is comprised of fiber, so the net carb content is low.
The soluble and insoluble fibers found in strawberries help contribute to great gut health by feeding the good bacteria found there.
The high fiber of strawberries contributes to their low Glycemic Index which helps prevent blood sugar and insulin spikes.
Strawberries are a good source of Vitamin C, manganese, folate, and potassium, as well as several other vitamins and a host of antioxidants that decrease inflammation and oxidative stress.
Why add empty, white flour carbohydrates, cholesterol-raising saturated fat, and even more carbohydrates in sugar to something that screams PERFECTION and HEALTH?
Looking for hors d’oeuvre? People will rush to get a fresh strawberry.
Want to ramp up your oatmeal in the morning or as an evening snack? Add a dollop of non-fat Greek yogurt and several sliced strawberries. Simply divine!
Looking for an awesome snack? Several fresh strawberries will rock your world, without rocking the calories or the blood sugar.
There are some folks who are allergic to strawberries, especially young children and people with sensitivities to birch pollen or apples, who may have symptoms after consuming strawberries.
Until the blueberries are available sometime in late May or June, fresh strawberries will be gracing my breakfast, snack, salad, and dessert plates for a while.
How about you? Are you going to choose strawberries in the raw without the detractors of flour, sugar, and fat?
Our editor, Sheree, advises to pick only the fully ripe strawberries because they will not ripen after picking – they only age out.
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Have you ever eaten a slice of Mock Apple Pie? I had only heard of it, and I vaguely remembered the pseudo-fruit pie used Ritz Crackers with their all their “buttery goodness.”
A quick jump into the internet HERE revealed some interesting facts:
The mock apple pie, made from crackers, was probably invented for use aboard ships, as it was known to the British Royal Navy as early as 1812.[24] The earliest known published recipes for mock apple pie date from the antebellum period of the 1850s.[25][26] In the 1930s, and for many years afterwards, Ritz Crackers promoted a recipe for mock apple pie using its product, along with sugar and various spices.[27]
Apparently, the Limeys lacked all forms of fresh or dried fruit, not just citrus. Bravo to their creative cooks who cobbled together a pie crust filled with saltines and flavored with sugar and spices.
With fresh fruit at my fingertips, no desire to add sugar, saturated fats or white flour, and a desire for a bit of “healthy dessert” – I set out on my quest.
But first, the back story …
As much as I adore my Grits ‘n Eggs ‘n Okra breakfasts, it’s nice to vary the diet, so I occasionally stir up some oatmeal combo to which I add what I call “sweet spices.”
Check out page 161 of Toolkit for Wellness to see how using cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and other spices/flavorings can decrease or eliminate the need for sugar.
One day, I got the idea to stir a half can of pumpkin puree into my cooking cereal. After adding vanilla and a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, I was enjoying all the pie satisfaction without tons of sugar or milk – or fattening crust.
I will fess up that my oatmeal is cooked with just a bit of brown sugar – recipe to follow – but the need for more is simply not there. Since there are always leftovers, I soon discovered that a small serving of my Mock Pumpkin Pie was a satisfying, HEALTHY dessert, filled with an orange veggie and fiber.
After putting a small shot of whipped cream on top, I was feeling quite special.
A Mock Apple Pie was soon to follow. Check out these satisfying ingredients and the recipe.
NOTE: Photoshoot day featured fresh apples and strawberries. In hindsight, I’d save the strawberries for the garnish alone – unless you were not planning on having leftovers. Strawberries lose their intense color after cooking. If using immediately, you could stir in the diced strawberries last minute, just prior to serving.
MOCK APPLE PIE a la FOODTALK4YOU
Ingredients
1 cup/250 ml old fashioned rolled oats – I use gluten-free
½ cup/250 ml steel cut oats – I use gluten-free
3 cups/750 ml water
2 tablespoons/30 ml brown sugar
1 cup/250 ml unsweetened applesauce
½ fresh apple, diced – I use Ambrosia apples
1 tsp/5 ml apple pie spice
Splash of vanilla extract – optional
Dash of salt – optional
Method
Add all oats, brown sugar, salt, and water into a saucepan on medium heat, stirring to combine.
Continue stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the pan. When the spoon begins to leave a “track” at the bottom of the pan, add the applesauce and diced apples. Continue to cook, stirring every so often.
When apples are heated and cooked to your desired doneness, remove from heat, add vanilla – if using – and serve. I prefer to leave some fibrous crunch to my apples to preserve their fresh fruit quality.
A cup and a half/375 ml serving makes a hearty breakfast.
A ¾ cup/187 ml serving is exactly right for dessert or an evening snack.
Certainly, this recipe easily adapts to canned pumpkin, or an array of fresh fruit. I hope you enjoy this hybrid Mock Apple Pie.
In health – even at dessert
Deidre
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I believe personal growth starts when the comfort zone is in the rearview mirror.
That’s what happened on April 12th, seven years ago. Goodbye comfort zone. Hello, foodtalk4you.com!
The thing to understand is – growth is not linear. When you grow in one direction, little accompanying offshoots spring up and out from your initial effort, all requiring additional growth.
My musings about total body good health out there for the world to read?
Geez. Who was I? How do I even start?
Hostgator? Domains? WordPress? What’s all that?
Foodtalk4you has led me to self-publishing, marketing, advertising on Amazon, to putting a full-fledged, free course on Teachable.
So far.
Maybe you are actualizing your desire to watercolor; it’s not something you’ve ever learned how to do. Maybe you have never done anything artsy before.
First comes learning about what kinds of brushes you need. Then comes the type of paper to use. Where or how are you going to learn watercolor techniques? Pretty soon, you are conversant about different kinds of paint, types of palettes – maybe even easels.
You start out with a simple still life and then discover the world of plein air art. Shading. Light. Perspective. Focal points. Seasons. Now, there’s matting and framing to consider.
You have amassed a sizeable collection of paintings that you now want to share with the world. You learn about getting a booth at the local farmer’s market and then you learn how to attractively present your beautiful pictures.
Business cards? Well, there you go. You learn how to design them. You learn where to get them printed.
One of your watercolors was bought by an elementary school teacher who asks if you would come to her class to demonstrate to the students the basics of how-to watercolor. You, teaching others? Now your comfort zone is really being stretched. But you go for it, and the students were wonderful, talented, and they hung on your every word.
Eventually, your tiny little shoot of growth has matured into a thriving tree with many branches. Bravo!
Stepping out of our comfort zones is where life is. Where there’s life, there’s growth.
So, go ahead. Step out of that comfort zone. It’s just one step, but it will lead to many others. Pretty soon, you’ll look back and marvel at all you have accomplished.
Happy seventh birthday, foodtalk4you! The trip is just getting started!
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Before I became a southerner, I was an avocado and artichoke-eating California girl. While working as a teaching assistant in a GED program at Fort Ord, I received an early introduction to a southern staple: “Grits ‘n eggs.”
Sort of.
You see, this was before I learned to speak southern.
Now, the “y’all,” and, “bless his heart,” spoken by our own 4’ 8” Georgia peach of a school secretary, were clearly understood – even by a westerner.
Since southern dishes were new to me – then, translating, “Grits ‘n eggs,” into a plate of food eluded my understanding. But our newly-wed secretary raved so much about the grits ‘n eggs she whipped up each morning for her hungry soldier husband, I thought I’d try it out.
Grits were an entirely new food group for me. Armed with instructions on what to look for in the store, I set out on how to, “fix me some grits ‘n eggs.” After scoring a bag of bonified grits, I was ready!
Bring water to a boil. Check.
Add grits and stir. Check.
Add salt as desired. Check.
What about the egg? The package said nothing about adding an egg, but I wanted grits ‘n eggs.
What’s a college educated girl going to do?
Add a couple eggs and stir!
Voila! Grits ‘n eggs!!!!
Unknowingly, I had just created my own hybrid version of “grits ‘n eggs” – even before hybrid was a word.
Not wanting to divulge my culinary ignorance, when our secretary asked how I liked these amazing “grits ‘n eggs,” I gave a tentative approval. Took me a while to learn the error of my ways through attentive listening and asking the right questions as to technique.
Like any true southerner – hey, I’ve been in the South for 40 years, so I’ve earned that label – the fine art of chopping up my over medium fried egg into my very separate serving of grits-on-the-same-plate is pure heaven – in a restaurant.
At home, I am basically a lazy cook, so I have learned to love my now named – “Fluffy Grits,” because only one pan is needed.
Lately, I’ve been kicking up nutritional and fiber values even more, and have added another acquired southern taste to the mix: Okra.
Not the breaded, deep-fried version. No, no. Plain slices of about 4-5 okra sautéed in my small pan with a bit of olive oil and seasoned with garlic salt until slightly browned.
Then I add my grits and water, stirring to make sure the grits are not clumping.
Next comes the egg. Stir/scramble the mixture until the egg is cooked.
Done and done. One pan.
“Grits ‘n eggs ‘n okra!”
My favorite breakfast. The fiber in the okra works wonders on the digestive system, and my day has one veggie in it all ready.
If you have an aversion to okra slime – fear not. Sauteed okra will not slime you.
Since stopping breaded and fried foods years ago, I have never looked back. Plain, sauteed okra is a delight – try seasoning them with a bit of Montreal Seasoning as a side dish to dinner …
Hmmm.
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Psychologists, sociologists, and historians will wag on for decades, looking at our pandemic experience from every possible angle, turning it over and over to draw their sage conclusions.
In the meantime, we’re living in this jumble of emotions while faced with physical isolation, uncertainty on every front, and grief.
Now, as we are possibly crawling out from being under this pandemic monster, we are wondering how we will respond to doing it in real time.
A study of 153 healthy young men showed that after they stared at 2-by-3 foot pieces of cardboard painted either deep blue or Pepto Bismol pink, the men who stared at the pink boards scored significantly lower in strength evaluations than their blue staring cohorts.
Based on these studies, the Navy painted detention rooms that same pink. Within 15 minutes, angry, unruly detainees calmed right down. Various county jails, youth detention centers, and psychiatric centers across America have used rooms painted in what became known as Baker-Miller pink (after the Navy officers who first used this color) to calm down and pacify angry, anxious, aggressive prisoners/clients.
Pink’s effects can be counter-productive in the long run, however, for after the initial calming phase, those confined to pink rooms for longer periods became anxious and agitated.
Too much of something?
Well, yes. And this brings me back to our pandemic state of mind.
Who, pre-COVID, has not lamented for:
More time at home?
More time with the family?
More time alone with just your thoughts?
Time off from rushing around?
Time to catch up on household projects?
Some of those items were viewed as our calming pink room.
Ahhh. A place to go to just be us.
Clearly, we have exceeded our calming stay in that proverbial pink room.
Yes, books have been written, homes redecorated, gardens planted, pictures painted, and much more, but people were not meant to lead such isolated lives. Most people are needing the give-and-take of smiles, hugs, shared meals, and shared experiences.
But a whistle is not going to blow, announcing the start of a race to normal. We aren’t going to be let out of the gate, running toward the nearest hug.
The same way there was no hard and fast rulebook about who would get sick, who would recover, who would have long-term effects, or who would die – there will be no absolute rulebook on how to come out of this.
Despite the agony of longing for social company, our minds will have to learn how to physically leave our safe spots with confidence and comfort – and achieve that elusive degree of safety.
Will we really want to fill our social calendars with endless in-person, have-to meetings or activities just because we can?
How has your focus changed? Once the populace has been vaccinated to an acceptable level, how will your freedom look?
It’s going to be months before this can happen, and millions of people are going to have to continue with safe habits and get vaccinated, but it’s a topic worth thinking about.
People have been changed. Depression is high with more prescriptions for anti-depressants being written than ever before. Many of us have not been hugged in over a year.
My friends and family are beginning to enjoy small, vaccinated, gatherings without masks. I talked to my neighbor yesterday; we’re both fully vaccinated, and neither of us wore a mask. We stayed 6 feet apart. I felt like I was doing something liberating – and yet daring.
Strange times. Need to get out of this pink room, for sure.
By the way – an addendum was added to last week’s post HERE about closing our mouths to breathe. Please be sure to go back and read the additional clarification.
In health-
Deidre
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Any path in or out doesn’t matter. My nose is congested most of the time anyway, so mouth breathing will do the job, right?
Wrong.
My mind is being blown away by ANCIENT information containing the sure knowledge that breathing exclusively through the nose leads to a long healthy life; and mouth breathing leads to disease, facial deformity, and premature death.
As promised, after sharing some breathing pattern exercises that assist in de-stressing our inner selves, HERE, I am now sharing a little of what I am learning about how to breathe.
Got that??
Yes. James Nestor’s book, Breath – The New Science of a Lost Art, is changing my perspective – not only about how to breathe – but altering my thinking about health, itself, and where it comes from.
And, I am only halfway into chapter 4.
Snoring?
Sleep apnea?
High blood pressure?
ADHD?
Bedwetting?
Erectile Dysfunction?
Psoriasis?
Depression?
Headaches?
Crooked teeth?
Oh, the list just goes on and on. Chances are excellent that sufferers of the conditions on the list above are … wait for it … mouth breathers.
You’ve never heard of such? I hadn’t either. I was vaguely aware that mouth breathing lead to an enlarged heart, but all the rest was news to me.
Yet, this is not new information. There is a vast, tough currently not widely shared, body of knowledge on this topic. So far, I have learned about:
Texts as old as 1500 BC explaining that the nose is designed to bring air into the body, not the mouth
8th Century Chinese texts citing that breathing is meant to happen through the nose; otherwise, mouth breathing would bring disease.
George Catlin, in 1830, who trekked through North America visiting 50 Native American tribes, where he found people to be quite tall – often up to 7 feet – were robust in health, had perfect teeth, and showed no deformities or diseases. Throughout his travels, he discovered a common denominator.
George Catlin
Each tribe embraced what they viewed as an ancient truth regarding health: Breathe exclusively through the nose. Breathing through the mouth brought stress and disease. This single idea was initiated in practice from birth. Mothers would watch over their babies, closing their mouths should they fall open. Even the way babies were carried made mouth opening difficult. So committed to this principle, Native Americans would even smile with closed lips.
Catlin continued his exploration of Native Peoples in the Andes, Argentina, and Brazil to see if this technique was universally held. It was.
In 1862, Catlin published his findings, Breath of Life. My copy arrives next week, but James Nestor quotes his last paragraph saying:
“And if I were to endeavor to bequeath to posterity the most important Motto which human language can convey, it should be in three words – SHUT YOUR MOUTH. Where I would paint and engrave it, in every Nursery, and on every Bed-post in the Universe, its meaning could not be mistaken. And if obeyed, its importance would soon be realized.”
See, Catlin became a true believer after closing the chapter of decades-long respiratory disease to opening four decades of robust health, living to about double the life expectancy of that time – all through the diligent practice of breathing exclusively through his nose.
One point of physiology that Nestor is teaching in these early chapters is that mouth breathing begets the need to mouth breathe, while nose breathing increases the ability to nose breathe.
Mouth breathing leads very quickly to snoring. Snoring leads to sleep apnea, whereby the ever-softening tissues at the back of the throat sag down and block the airway, eventually waking the snorer with a snort, which is an intentional gasp to reboot breathing – but just briefly.
So, do you breathe through your nose at night, or through your mouth?
I wasn’t sure. Seemed there was a lot of thick phlegm at the back of my throat that needed to be hacked out every morning. I went to bed with my mouth shut. I woke up with my mouth shut. But I was never ready to get up and out of bed come morning. Hmmm.
Following Nestor’s advice, I purchased some 3M Nexcare Durapore Durable Cloth tape, which in the medical realm is silk tape that is used for bandages.
A one-inch piece of this odorless tape will do. Gently placed over the center of my lips, I am guaranteed to not mouth breathe. Tape removal the next morning is easy, painless, and with no tape residue.
Results? Magically, there is no phlegm to hack out. Also, was that really me – ready to get out of bed? Maybe I wasn’t a lazy person.
Okay, once could have been a fluke. So, I’m continuing my quest to be the best nose breather ever, and the results are the same every day. I feel rested and ready to start each new day.
Who knows what wonders of robust health await? How about you? Ready to SHUT YOUR MOUTH?
Breathing through my nose-
Deidre
ADDENDUM:
Let’s breathe – not gag or suffocate – please! As a reminder to all foodtalk4you readers, I want to remind you not to go to extremes if you want to try your own little tape-over-the-lips experiment.
Clearly, a generous use of Duct Tape, masking tape, painter’s tape, or Gorilla glue should be avoided AT ALL COSTS.
The one-inch portion of silk tape you see me using has now been pared down to one-half inch. You want to be able to cough, sneeze, or even throw up without blocking a natural exit.
This has been safe for me and others while employing common sense.
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Is it too early to start eating the next meal? But you’re feeling a little hungry, and a bite of something would, “keep the big ones from eating the little ones,” as my mom used to say.
Just who the big and little ones were, I never figured out – but they were starting to wage a small battle in my tummy for sure.
How about a baby Snickers? Or just a bite of one? Ha! Bet you can’t do that!
Used to drive my students nuts taking one bite of Snickers a day until it was gone by Friday! LOL! That was back in the day when I ate Snickers.
I digress.
Point being: Wouldn’t an equal number of calories of any number of things, be equal to the body? Bite of Snickers vs. 15 red seedless grapes vs. 8 baby carrots?
If you are a long-time loyal reader of foodtalk4you, I’ve touched on this before. A calorie-for-calorie approach is not going to bring balanced health. Here’s why:
Just look at the labels. Snickers ingredients and nutrition:
Now look at the ingredient and nutrition labels on the grapes and carrots:
Oops! That’s right. There are no ingredient labels! If the snack choice isn’t obvious yet, let’s look at the nutritional breakdown of first grapes and then baby carrots:
With our COVID isolation hopefully winding down soon – I get vaccine #2 on March 10th! – I don’t want to literally roll out my front door carrying the weight of pandemic stress-eating around my waist.
Remember, any extra tonnage we might be lugging along with us was not put there overnight, and it won’t come off overnight either. Let’s do this one baby carrot, or grape, step at a time.
These two snack hacks will start your journey – and will tide you over between meals.
I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now, and can attest that I am feeling great, weigh less, and feel so much better about my food choices.
While that single bite of Snickers is gone in a flash and we are left wanting more, a snack of 10-15 grapes or 8 baby carrots takes much longer to eat, fills up that tummy, adds to our hydration, and provides positive nutrition.
Normally, a bowl of 10 grapes is all I care to eat at a time — they really are filling when nibbled on one at a time. Ten grapes have about 20 calories. There’s plenty of sugar to power up your activity, lots of water, and vital nutrients. These are great as an evening snack to munch on during a movie.
Carrots? Wow! My little bowl of 8 carrots can carry me a long time, and take a while to eat, as well. That’s the keen thing about these two choices, they are not going to be gone in a flash. Did you see the quantity of Vitamin A in 8 baby carrots? Good for the eyes!
Did you get your steps in today? While talking to two friends on my cell phone, I walked my yard like a Rumba! Got my step goal done and a little extra. Can’t beat being in the sunshine, while spreading friendship the only way we can right now!
Join me in using these snack hacks; what is learned while snacking can be applied to meals as well, but that’s another post.
In health-
Deidre
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You can enjoy some kite-flying weather in the United States right now, but our post is not about kites today.
No, we’re talking about metaphorical heartstrings.
We don’t hear much about heartstrings anymore. You know the expressions, “That story really tugged at my heartstrings”? or “Zing! Went the strings of my heart”?
Most old sayings are rooted in truth. We do have strings in our heart called the chordae tendineae. They hang onto one of the two kinds of heart valve flaps we have, allowing them to close just enough during each beat.
Understanding the concept of love reaching out over the miles during a pandemic, or across space and time as in the Titanic love song, “My Heart Will Go On,” can be a tricky concept to explain to young children or even adults.
How do you paint the picture of feeling love, connection, or concern in your heart? How is it that we are connected? How do you demonstrate love never dies? How do we remain connected after physical separation?
One mother, Patrice Karst, sought a way to explain this phenomenon to her young son, Elijah, and in so doing, has given adults and children a physical way to see that which is invisible.
Her book called, The Invisible Stringwas born. With a relatable, down-to-earth story, and masterful illustrations by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff, Patrice Karst brings to life the love ties that bind and connect us all.
Is your child anxious about leaving you when going to school, especially after staying at home so much?
Has a best friend moved away?
Is a parent being deployed?
Has a loved one died?
Is there a sense of disconnect because of travel restrictions?
I think this book will go a long way in demonstrating the strength and nature of love to young ones and will serve as a great reminder to the adults reading, The Invisible String, as well.
I have my copy! It’s ready to share with grandkids, and has already reminded me not to pout too much, when not hearing from someone for a while. That love string is still there. Maybe I need to make it stronger by reaching out to them.
Thank you, Natalie, my Facebook friend, for sharing this delightful book with me! Now, I am spreading the love by sharing it with my readers!
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Does that sound familiar? Yes! Good job! It’s the focus of foodtalk4you!
Today, I am going to share some breathing techniques that can instantly become a part of your toolkit for stress reduction. Hmmm. Sounds like another book title. More on new books later.
Right now, we’re going to focus on three specific techniques I shared this past weekend during a Zoom meeting. Listeners seemed to be taking notes, and one participant emailed me that the techniques had helped her through a stressful situation later that day.
But first … a short intro. We are born breathing using our diaphragm, and somewhere along the way, often become chest breathers. The difference being. we switched from using the large, strong diaphragm muscle to move the air in and out of our lungs, to using the smaller, secondary muscles of the upper chest.
As a test, notice if your shoulders are rising significantly as you take a nice big breath. Yes? You’re a chest breather. No? Is your belly moving out more than your shoulders move up? Well, you’re a belly breather – and probably a singer with some training on how to breathe.
Chest breathing is associated with our response to stressful situations – a part of that fight-or-flight response. Chronic chest breathing can increase tension in the head, neck, and shoulders. Belly, abdominal, or diaphragmatic breathing is more effective in moving air and leads to calming effects and responses.
When someone tries to help you calm down by saying, “breathe,” your best response is to mindfully take some slower breaths that allow your belly to move out with each new breath.
You can practice this technique by placing one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly. As you slowly breathe in and out through your nose, concentrate on shifting your breath to make your belly move more than your chest. The calming effect is almost immediate.
Armed with knowing how to breathe from your belly, let’s look at three easy techniques that can help you calm down in a jiff.
Falling Out Breath – is excellent for physical tension, and we naturally do this when we groan. Try this: Inhale deeply into your belly, and at the top of the inhale, grab a bit more air. Then, exhale completely, making a sound. A sigh, groan – whatever. Do this a few times, and you’ll note a considerable sense of relaxation in your body.
Box Breath – is useful for clearing your mind. Not only will you be moving air more efficiently by breathing using your diaphragm, but your concentration on breathing will scatter whatever emotions or thoughts that are swirling in your head. Do this: Inhale to a count of 4. Hold for a count of 4. Exhale to a count of 4. Hold for a count of 4. Repeat several times. Magic, right? A minute or two of this each should help going to sleep.
Emptying breath – our last breath tool for today will deactivate that stress response and reactivate calming mechanisms. Try this for a minute or two: Inhale to a count of 3, and exhale to a count of 6, trying to get rid of as much air as possible.
Please don’t pass out from hyperventilation!
It may take some practice to do these techniques without getting woozy. Take things slow and easy, breathing using that diaphragm. Yes, your belly is going to need to move out – which may detract from your svelte profile – but you can suck it in after your nerves have calmed down.
What I have read of it online has convinced me to get a hard copy to study. You can expect some more posts in the future about this most important subject!
Breathe, dear readers.
In health-
Deidre
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