There certainly is a lot of evidence out there suggesting the myriad of health benefits of cultivating a mindfulness meditation practice. For some of us, however, anything that requires practicing may seem rather daunting, and may feel like just another item on the list of things that we "should do", like exercising or eating healthy. As such, meditation can also be one of the things that we berate ourselves for not doing, or not doing right, and thus making it all the more difficult to initiate.
It does not have to be that complicated, however. Surprisingly often, all it takes is a few minutes of slow deep breaths to slow down our heart rates, loosen our bodies and connect with whatever is right in front of us. The breath is our vehicle to sync back up with our bodies and disconnect from our thinking, planning and judging minds. It gives our bodies the opportunity to relax and brings our systems out of the highly-taxing fight or flight mode, that is characteristic of any stressful work or personal situation. When our inner resources are no longer being taxed by needing to either flee or proverbially and/or literally go to battle, we naturally shift into a more balanced and spacious mode of being, where more of our inner resources are suddenly at our disposal.
By simply taking slow, deep breaths we are literally sending our systems the much needed resources of reassurance and support in order to keep on going! Furthermore, slowing down our breathing gives us the space to truly engage with whatever is physically in front of our eyes, instead of forsaking our only tangible reality for the often-demanding and intangible plans in our heads.
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