Taking A Breath
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Taking a breath is probably the most powerful practice we can train ourselves to add to our daily life.
Taking a breath allows us to “buy time” by squeezing a little pause before speaking or acting impulsively. It’s that mini pause that leads to being to make a choice rather than react on autopilot.
Taking a breath also allows us to self-regulate. This might actually require a few breaths; but nevertheless taking slow mindful breaths engages the section of our vagal nerve that is able to calm down our activation and therefore reactivity.
Finally, taking a breath allows us to integrate any new positive choice that we have made or any new beneficial experience that we just went through. It takes 11 seconds to wire a new habit into our nervous system, which is more or less just three breaths.
How to train ourselves to add this practice to our daily life? Here are a few ideas:
Putting a sticker or an elastic band to your usual mug or glass, or to another familiar object that you handle regularly at home or at work. Could be the soap dispenser next to the sink.
Wearing a piece of jewelry to symbolize this new intention, like a ring, a bracelet, etc. Each time you will see it or feel it, you will remember what you are up to.
Associating taking a breath to a specific habit that you already do often, such as washing your hands, filling up your glass with water, drinking, etc.
The breath is always happening in the present moment. When we connect to it mindfully, we can use it to regulate our emotions, choose response over reaction, and wire new positive habits into our nervous system. It’s totally worth it to train ourselves to do this multiple times per day, so that we have access to it when the stakes are really high and we really need to pause and respond rather than react.
