Reset with Conscious Breathing (Pranayama)

Where's The Reset Button?!

You can be an excellent leader and at times forget to take your own advice. You can be an amazing artist and sometimes experience creative blocks. You can even be the example of an aware and conscious being and occasionally portray negligent behavior.

Friendly reminder: We're not being and doing for perfection, we're being and doing for practice.

As caring, goal-setting-go-getters, and solution oriented folks, we naturally side on the tendency to do our best as well as be our best. With all of the effort and work we put into self development, relationship building, and giving back we need and deserve time to reboot.

Another friendly reminder: Rest, recovery, and rejuvenation is the 'reset button' we're looking looking for in our everyday life.

Furthermore, we have to actively and consistently choose to reset in order to remain successful on our path towards more clarity, happiness, and wellbeing.

Sure, our reset can look like a vacation, a weekend getaway, or a spa day. If you have the time and funds to do any of these things, and it brings you genuine peace and bliss, please continue make it a ritual and habit.

But what if time off and time away is not enough? What if we feel stressed and overworked in the meantime...right now...before and after?

If we're honestly acknowledging our full schedules and productive lifestyle, sometimes we don't have the time and/or money for these types of resets to happen right away. Or maybe we tend to take the stress and pressures of life with us to these 'time-out' sessions.

You can make time for rejuvenation, even if it's 5 minutes! You can hit that internal reset button daily, weekly, and monthly with very simple rejuvenating activities. Right now, let's explore and review conscious breathing.

Belly Breathing Exercise

Do you have 5 minutes? Of course you do!

Prep

* Respect your time by setting a timer.

* Try this exercise sitting up with posture support.

* Then, try this exercise laying down with posture support.

Practice

1. Place your hands on your belly.

2. Inhale deeply through your nose, then exhale through your mouth.

3. On the next inhale, fill your belly like a balloon, then relax the belly with an exhale.

4. Again, inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth..

5. Inhale and fill your belly like a balloon, then relax the belly with an exhale

6. Repeat steps #3-5 for at least four minutes.

7. Return to your natural rhythm of breathing and slowly transition into your next activity.

Benefits

Remember that regular and continued practice will better support the following:

• Practice Mindful Breathing Anytime: You can practice breathing techniques to start your day with focus and energy, re-up in the middle of the day, and relax the mind and body before sleep.

• Calm The Mind & Focus: The benefits of calm and focus can extend beyond the time of your conscious breathing exercise if you practice consistently. The above breathing practice may be helpful before work, study, and other major projects.

• Tone The Diaphragm & Aid Digestion: When you breathe deeply with awareness, you may find that your natural rhythm of breathing is less shallow and more relaxed. You may even notice that your digestion improves due to massaging some of the major digestive organs with breathing exercises.