Did you know that as a society, we have stopped breathing properly because of our vanity? If you breathe properly, your diaphragm is meant to go up and your stomach out but because of our vanity, humans have largely stopped doing that – especially women, in order to not look fat. The fear of fat isn’t just about actual fat but also about looking fat. We will literally stop breathing in order to make sure it happens!
In my therapy session weeks ago, my therapist @michellezelli simply said this word. I had spent 90 minutes and barely took a moment to take a breathe.
Over the last month, I have been consciously breathing. I check in every couple of hours and it turns out… I really don’t breathe enough!
The difference in the last month has been outstanding, simply by breathing.
My stress has gone down, I feel calmer, I’m more mindful in my day to day life, I feel like I can manage more and a lot of my bloating has been reduced, which is not important in terms of an appearance thing, but more important in a comfort level thing.
Physiology it also has its effects because when you breathe quickly or in a shallow way, your nervous system acts as if it’s under stress so your blood pressure and heart rate will reflect that.
So stop, for just a moment and breathe. 4 seconds in, hold for 4, 6 seconds out. Whatever you are going through, this will help. Whatever you need to do can wait.