June 26, 2013

Putting off breathing



So, I was really excited about doing my 7 minutes a day breathing app and blogging about it . . . and then life happened. I did it for 4 days then my son and I both got colds and he's been sick off and on since. But those are excuses, I still could have found 7 minutes a day to breathe, but I didn't. I'm not very disciplined and am excellent at finding reasons to get out of things, even if they are really good for me. I wonder why that is? Anyway, I've felt guilty about it and like I couldn't blog about other things because I needed to follow up on the breathing post and so I would say I'd do it the next few days then report back . . . didn't happen, so I'm coming clean.

The days I did the breathing were interesting though. The first 2 days I actually felt more anxious, which was discouraging, but I think it was just all my tension surfacing. The next 2 days helped me to let go of that tension. I definitely see why it is called a "practice" because it probably takes a long time to be able to focus on your breath in the moment and not on the laundry that needs done or the child coughing in the other room or what you'll eat for supper. I'll keep trying to practice or at least take time out to breathe during the day.

June 1, 2013

7 minutes a day to better health

I am not the healthiest person.

I don't like to exercise or eat my veggies, but I do enjoy complaining when my body isn't working to its full potential. I love to moan self-pityingly "why does this happen to me, i'm so young, i walk a lot, this is not fair. . . " Which, shockingly, doesn't help matters. It also doesn't help that every spare moment I have is spent staring at a screen of some sort or filling my ears with sound and I never actually process all the information coming into my body. SUPER helpful . . . Or not.

So I want to try something and have you 5 people who read my blog help keep me accountable.
I'm going to breathe deeply for 7 minutes a day. That's it, just breathing. I'm going to be using an app called Universal Breathing by Saagara. It has music that ebbs and flows as you inhale and exhale. I know, I know, "why do we need an app for everything?", "don't you already know how to breathe?" Truthfully, no, I don't think that I do know how to breathe. Not in a way that helps my body relax and my tense muscles let go of the stress of the day. In this busy world that's always 'on', I need help relaxing, and, yes, there's an app for that.  

P.S. This is not an ad for a certain app, just trying to document what I'm doing and hoping it will inspire others.