Walk & Breathe: relieve the Stress and Anger!
This is actually an age-old trick self-development gurus and spiritual coaches have been teaching forever. It is dead simple. And it works.
I learned it more than 20 years ago, from a French self-development institute (“Institute Aubanel” – not to be found on the net, sadly).
Take a few minutes a day. Can be done anywhere outside, where the air is fresh and you have room to walk. On your way to the bus stop, while walking the dog, – whatever.
Walk, not slowly, but do not run either. Concentrate on your breath. Synchronize your breathing with your footsteps. Breathe 7 steps in (seven distinct “sips of air”), hold 1, breathe 7 steps out, hold one, repeat… If seven is too much for you (most people breathe in an unhealthy shallow way…), start with 5 or even 3. Just keep the rhythm and listen to the breathing. Don’t think too much – just walk, enjoy your healthy body and the fresh air, let everything else go.
Advanced:
Try not to breathe the “western way”, by “blowing up your chest”. Instead let the air “sink in”, all the way down into your belly and abdomen. Use force not when breathing in, but when letting it OUT. And not too much force for that either – just a light pressure, maybe make a slight hissing noise when breathing out.
Even more advanced:
Imagine a warm red pillar growing upwards in your spine while breathing in, and retracting down when breathing out. This has additional health effects and will benefit your posture as well.
What does this have to do with good sleep? Many, many sleep disorders have one of two reasons (or both): not enough physical exercise and oxygen. And stress.
The technique described above helps a lot to reduce stress and get rid of obsessive negative thoughts, actually it is one of the most effective ways to do so. And it is a moderate form of exercise as well.
Try it – the results will amaze you!
And it is completey free, by the way… ;-)
Related posts:
Leave a Reply