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Body Balance Five Minute Breathing Break


No matter what’s happening around us, we’re breathing. It’s how we breathe that makes a critical difference.

When stress hits, our breathing becomes shallow, our heart rates and blood pressure shoot up, we often feel tightness around our chest or in our gut, and our faces might become tense and hard. These physiological reactions are the result of the "fight or flight hormones" being released into our bloodstream.

We think of breathing as being automatic, but actually it’s a very voluntary process.

When you feel stress symptoms coming on:

  • Take a seat with a tall spine and one or both hands on your belly, or just rest your hands in your lap, the back of your right hand cradled in the palm of your left with relaxed elbows.
  • Find a few moments to close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath.
  • Take full deep breaths in and out through your nose, with a very slight part in your lips like you are breathing in from your navel center.
  • Feel the breath rise from your abdomen into your chest.
  • When thoughts arise, just say “thinking” to each thought, allowing those thoughts to pass like clouds across the open space of your mind. Come back to your breath.
  • Feel the fullness of each breath without force. Allow the rhythm and whisper of each breath to soothe your system and bring balance.

Notice that after a few minutes of deep, conscious breathing, our heart rates slow to a relaxed pace, we feel space and ease return to our chest and gut, our eyes and faces soften. You might also feel a nurturing warmth spreading through your core.