Bear in mind the old adage “Take A Deep Breath and also Count To Ten?” There is a great deal of fact in several of these old expressions. Numerous stress-relieving as well as reflective strategies concentrate on breath. And for great factor: it is among the easiest as well as most effective methods of soothing the mind as well as returning our body to a state of equilibrium or stability.
Some years ago I began collaborating with Anya Sophia Mann, owner of Aware Trip, as my instructor and mentor. She introduced me to the ‘100 conscious-breaths’ method, by inviting me to take 100 mindful breaths at the beginning of daily prior to doing anything else. The method is pretty basic: just count 100 breaths and take notice of each one. Easier claimed than done!
In addition to being a reliable device for relaxing the mind, this technique is likewise a measure to indicate the state of our mind in any kind of minute. For instance, at first I would certainly attempt doing this before I got out of bed. As well as was astonished at how much my mind would drift. I would certainly find myself dreaming and entirely fail to remember where I depended on. Typically I would absolutely drift off – considering another thing I needed to do as well as fail to remember entirely that I was supposed to be counting 100 breaths.
When I did remember what I was supposed to be doing, I would certainly forget where I depended on. I would often feel perturbed as well as find myself believing: “This is ridiculous, I’m as well busy to do this. I have points to do!” That, in itself, is a method of the mind that maintains us really feeling worried. Think of it.
If you are truly also busy to take time out for 100 mindful breaths, you need to do this technique more than anyone! (And if I was really that active I would certainly be moving right into action and also not drifting back off to sleep!) Actually, the anxiety I was feeling was already there. It was driving me. This reality is that this strategy had actually simply exposed what currently existed in me.
At first we will experience agitation and also ‘shedding our location’. This is not a sign that this strategy doesn’t work. Indeed, exactly the reverse is taking place. The method is exposing to you real state of your over-stimulated mind. Nowadays we are extremely over-stimulated, by net info, TELEVISION, news, work-related issues. We have actually forgotten useful techniques such as this for relaxing ourselves down.
This is such a valuable method to discover that it is worth the preliminary pain we could feel, at first. If you can’t sit still to try this, and also feel a lot of agitation, attempt doing it in motion: running, strolling or biking, and also counting 100 breaths at the same time. It will certainly still have the very same impact to calm your mind and body.
If we can make it through the initial pain of this technique we can reach a point where the ‘leisure reflex’ starts. We re-train our minds, so that on beginning the technique the mind goes down all its’ anxiety and also automatically unwinds right into the breath.
We really feel calmer, loosened up and also much less high-strung. As soon as this happens, we have an additional useful tool to support us in lowering the anxiety in our lives, which we can bring into any kind of circumstance to alleviate the anxiety in the moment.
