Noticing And Reversing Email Apnea

This is a mindfulness practice to help deal with stress, especially when it comes to work-related tasks like email. When you are stressed, you breathe more shallowly. Linda Stone, former Apple and Microsoft Executive coined the phrase "Email Apnea." If you find yourself holding your breath and breathing shallowly, this practice will help you reverse that.

Transcript

Welcome to this mindfulness practice for reversing email apnea.

What's that?

Have you ever noticed that when you get stressed out you tend to breathe more shallowly?

Many of us do this without even realizing it.

Well,

Email apnea takes this to a whole new level.

Email apnea occurs when you breathe very shallowly or even stop breathing completely while reading email or engaging in other kinds of messaging or online activity.

This term was coined by Linda Stone,

A mindfulness practitioner and former Apple and Microsoft executive.

Email apnea is an unconscious process.

You engage in it without even being aware of it at all.

If you find yourself temporarily holding your breath or breathing very shallowly while working on your computer,

You're definitely not alone.

And needless to say,

It's not a very healthy practice.

According to experts,

More than 80% of people have email apnea,

Which could apply to not breathing or breathing shallowly while doing anything online.

One way to avoid this is to practice intentionally breathing deeply.

So before we get started with today's exercise,

Take a minute to breathe deeply.

In through your nose and gently exhale through your mouth.

Take a moment to get comfortable.

Gently close your eyes.

Find a comfortable place to sit on a chair or on the floor or stand.

Find any comfortable position where you can be still and relaxed and upright.

Let your body relax and put your phone down.

Rest your hands gently in your lap.

Many of us can feel so overwhelmed trying to keep up with emails and text messages and social media.

And we can get so overwhelmed that we just stop breathing.

Breathing deeply and practicing mindfulness can help you to tune into the present moment and create some much needed mental and physical space.

Now take a few nice,

Long,

Deep breaths.

Breathing in through the nose,

Letting that air go down deeply into the belly.

Holding for just a moment,

And then gently exhale.

Let all of the air empty from your lungs.

And then take one more of those deep breaths in and out on your own,

Being aware of yourself breathing while you're breathing.

And another deep breath in while you're breathing.

Draw your attention to how good it feels to be here.

Breathing,

Relaxing your body and taking a break from the stresses of the day.

Letting go of any thoughts or concerns about the day as you continue to breathe in and out at your own pace.

Follow your breath as it moves down into your body on your inhale.

Notice how your breath feels on the exhale.

Let that breath relax your mind and your body,

Being present here in this moment and letting go of everything else.

Continuing to breathe in deeply and out at your own pace.

Now gently scan your body for any areas where you might be holding on to anxiety or stress,

Starting from the top of your head to your forehead.

Nose,

Cheekbones,

Jaw,

Neck,

Slowly moving down through your body,

Pausing on any areas where you find that you're holding tension.

And then when you breathe in deeply,

Feel like you're breathing into that tense part of your body,

And that when you exhale,

Feel that you're releasing tension from that part of your body.

Feel free to move that part of your body if your neck is tense,

You can roll your neck around or from side to side,

Whatever it is that feels relaxing,

Comforting,

And supportive to you.

As you continue to breathe deeply but in a relaxed manner and breathe in to those areas of tension and breathe the tension out,

Notice how much more relaxed you're feeling now.

For many of us,

The upper body,

The head,

The neck,

The shoulders are areas of tension,

Particularly if we are using devices frequently,

Which require us to be sitting upright,

Often lead us to hunch forward,

Keep our necks tight.

Spend as much time as you need on these areas of the body or on any other areas that you notice for you are holding tension.

And on those exhales,

Release the tension from those parts of your body.

On each inhale,

Be aware that you're inhaling.

On each exhale,

Be aware that you're exhaling.

Be aware of the movement of your body as you inhale,

The air going in through your nose,

Down through your throat into your lungs all the way into the belly.

Notice how your abdomen rises and falls with each deep breath,

How your lungs expand and contract.

As you continue to breathe in and out,

Open up your awareness to whatever your attention is drawn to in this moment,

It might be a feeling in your body,

A bodily sensation,

A thought,

A feeling.

Now observe the weight of your body wherever it's contacting the ground or your chair.

Notice how the air feels on your skin,

The temperature outside,

Inside your body.

If any of this is feeling heavy or burdensome to you,

See if you can feel some enjoyment in the relaxation that breathing deeply is bringing to you.

And now let your breathing return to a more natural pace,

More natural depth,

And take a moment to notice how you feel after taking just a few minutes to breathe deeply and intentionally.

Gauge how your body and your mind are feeling.

See if you notice any differences from when you started this exercise.

And now let's practice a technique for reversing email apnea specifically.

You can go ahead and open up your eyes for the remainder of this practice.

Take out your smartphone and find a messaging app that you use frequently.

This might be your email app or text messaging or Facebook,

Instagram,

Whatever you find often pulls you in the most.

Now launch that app and look at the list of messages waiting for you.

Pause and turn your attention to your breath.

Notice your breathing.

Did you find that your breathing stopped or that your breathing got more shallow once you turned your attention to your messages?

If you did stop breathing,

Even for a moment,

You just experienced email apnea.

You can start to train your body away from this kind of reaction.

By paying close attention to your body and your breath in particular,

The next time you launch your email or other messaging app and turn your attention to reading or writing messages.

So that you can intentionally resume your normal breathing.

You might even try setting off an alarm,

A gentle bell or chime sound to go off every now and then to serve as a reminder to remember to breathe.

I would encourage you to try this the next time you pick up your phone and read an email or other message.

Taking just a little bit of extra time to bring your conscious awareness to what you're doing and to your breath.

That most vital function of our bodies is a great way to develop and grow and maintain a habit of mindfulness and mindful breathing.

I hope that you enjoyed this and thanks so much for joining me today.

Reviews

Thanks that great. Did the meditation standing up, never done this before.

I needed this. I noticed how stressful emails were becoming. Thank you.

It did not erase my tension completely (possibly i just needed more time) but i loved the part in the end with opening the messaging app. I noticed that when i see the unread message i get a little push of anxiety which lead me to shallow breathing. It was really useful for me to understand what was happening. Thank you 🙏