Breathing Exercises to Help You Balance Your Life and Relieve Stress

I think I’ve overloaded myself with too many  activities. On one hand I have this blog I’m running + a media critique paper + reports for capstone class + a midterm and now a futuristic new media communication technology group project that I’ve recently been assigned. Oh yeah, and I just remembered, a final. That’s just on one hand. On the other hand, I have everything else in my life going on and I’m taking on peoples projects because of certain complications. Where do I find my balance? How do I keep my sanity?

And sometimes, I just can’t make it to the gym, you know?

Sometimes,  I’m  just so focused on my studies and the people around me that I just can’t focus on myself and it really just breaks me down. So what do you do?

Photo Credit via Eva Tricks

 Just Breathe. Stop what you’re doing. Breathe. Keep your back straight, bring your shoulder’s back. And breathe. Good? Now Repeat.

That’s my own little version. I practice it for, literally, about 60 seconds and I’m back. I regain composure and control of whatever situation I am currently in. Sometimes, I even close my eyes and count to ten. Who ever thought breathing exercises could work so well, huh? The fact is that breathing reduces stress, and carrying on a load that is as big as a gorilla on your back normally tends to cause a good amount of stress. Now, some people say a little bit of stress is needed to keep people going and striving for more, but sometimes there’s too much that can really break a person down.

Here Time Magazine’s Health Website has 6 Breathing Techniques that can help anyone relax in 10 minutes. My favorite or most preferred?

Guided Visualization.

In a nutshell,  you’re basically breathing deeply while focusing your mind on positive images to replace negative thoughts. The whole idea of guided visualization is to go to that happy place that you’d rather be, instead of your current state of mind.Time magazine would rate this exercise on an intermediate type of level and they also state that there’s usually a coach, therapist or guide that suppose to help you go there. I think that if you can’t afford it, just grab a friend who cares about you and is willing to help you go there.

Breathing exercises, just get like Nike and “Do it” its good for you.

Just Breathe.

–Alba