Oh, Oh, Time For The "Miracle Breath!"

How many times a day do you need to take a deep breath to buy some time or clear your head and refocus? When you need to refocus, give the “Miracle Breath” a try.  This simple little breathing exercise can help you get out of the parts of your brain that control fear and desire and get you back into your frontal cortex. Frontal cortex? What’s that? That’s the part of your brain that helps you think clearly and plan ahead. It’s right there behind the bones of your forehead. 

Breathing deeply and calmly makes all the difference. When you feel threatened or aroused you tend to hold your breath. You may do shallow breaths so that you barely breathe, or hyperventilate (breathe faster than normal like a panting puppy).. But if you stay aware and make yourself slowdown your breathing, you can calm down and think more clearly. Enter The Miracle Breath!  "How do I do it" you might ask.  It’s simple.

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Place your tongue behind your upper teeth and breathe-in through your nose… nice and easy. Imagine you are slowly filling a balloon in your belly.

As you breathe-in say to yourself, "Slow."

When the balloon is full, put your tongue behind your lower teeth and gently breath-out through your mouth.

 As you breathe-out say to yourself, "Down."  ( As you exhale, check your shoulders and let them drop.)

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Do you believe it? Incredibly, with these two steps, you can change your body chemistry and command your subconscious to help you “Slow Down.” 

You can use this breathing exercise in lots of ways. You can use it when you start to stress or when you already feel stressed. You can commit to using it every hour or maybe three or four times a day as a way to stay aware and relax for a moment. It’s up to you. But I’m certain that if you use it, you will find it helpful. 

I have many tools like this in my book, Become the Person You Were Meant to Be -  The Choice-Cube Method: Step by Step to Choice and Change. You might want to take a look inside the book  http://amzn.to/H8R1GP

Copyright Dr. Beth Blevins Cujé  2012    http://www.choiceucbe.com