The Subtle Art of Breathing

This blog post was originally published for the Boheme Me Blog in 2020 with adaptations made to fit my current life circumstances.

What do these things have in common?

The job you must maintain.

The Monday morning that came too soon…

The house that needs cleaning.

Or maybe your situation involves taking care of a child or an elderly family member. Or maybe you, yourself have many hats you must wear at any given moment of the day. Even still, perhaps it’s this world that hasn’t stopped spinning out of control since 2020 began. 

If you guessed that all of these things (and more) will cause our bodies to take on stress, then you’d be right. This can do even worse damage to our physical bodies than one would think. Stress is known to bring about depression and anxiety, and we all know the rest of that story. According to HopkinsMedicine.org, 9.5% of the American population have or will deal with a depressive disorder. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably a lot more than that. Either way, it is fair to assume that these stressors are where many bad moods emit, as well. 

Can we be honest for a second? 

The smartest thing that you could do for yourself in moments like those and in this very one right now, is to take a deep breath.

No, I’m serious. 

Right now. 

Do it with me.

As you’re reading this, and as you inhale through your nose, take in as much air as you possibly can, then take a little more until your lungs feel so full that it almost hurts. Now hold it in for a moment. You won’t suffocate, I promise. Feel your lungs as they stretch open a little wider. That expansion. It feels like an ignition within you. 

Accept that feeling, then part your lips and slowly release the air out of your lungs at the rate you would let air out of a bike tire. Feel and acknowledge the desire to rush through your exhale, but resist the urge like a toddler at bedtime.

You are in control.

Let your inner adult take over and force the slooooow exhale. Let it all out. 

Even more.

Even more.

Is there more?

There. Take a moment to acknowledge that you are beginning a new cycle, offer gratitude for where you currently are in your life journey. The struggles and triumphs, they are both working in your favor, after all.

Then repeat this process as many times as necessary with the draw of an inhale. 

Sometimes we must disrupt the vibrations we are emitting, in other words, the bad moods we emit, in order to find our day’s rhythm. When we remain within our day’s rhythm, we are literally “going with the flow” as they say. Our lower vibratory moods are like the little fish that tries to swim upstream. He may get to where he’s going, but it was a day of struggle to get there and he ended on a shit day. Who needs that? 

Really.

So how does one find their day’s rhythm? It’s all in your breath and how you are breathing it. Make it a goal to be mindful of this today. If you check in with yourself later and find that you’re tense and breathing shallow, your shoulders are up to your ears and you feel a migraine starting, bookmark or share this post to refer back to later. 

I promise to be rooting for you.

If you found this post to be helpful to you, I would love to hear from you this week. You can connect with us on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube.

Until next time, may the road rise up to meet you.

Xo.

D+Mo