I want to propose to you a simple yet profound concept.
That is,
That peace is just a breath away.
Just one pause,
One moment,
One mindful breath,
And you can transform your mental state into one of peace.
The breath acts as a natural stopgap when used appropriately,
Strategically,
Mindfully,
Can take you out of your mind and into the present moment.
Just take a breath now,
Just one,
With me,
And notice how you feel.
The tension starts to leave,
The focus is drawn to the sensations of the body.
You reconnect to the physical and drop the mental.
This leads to peace,
Calm,
Clarity,
And positive control.
When we breathe,
We breathe slowly and deeply into our bellies via the nose,
Then we hold,
And then we release slowly.
Let's try it again.
Deep,
Slow breath in through the nose,
Deeply into the belly,
Holding,
And then gently and slowly releasing through the mouth by drawing your attention to a physical object,
In this case the breath.
You're engaging mindfulness,
You're noticing the subtle tweaks and changes,
But you're also physiologically calming yourself down.
The mind and the body are deeply interconnected,
And the breath is a great conduit to explore that connection.
The slower and calmer you breathe,
The slower and calmer the mind is.
So now when you take a breath,
One slow,
Deep,
Mindful breath,
I want you to focus your attention on the sensations of the breath,
What it feels like at the nose,
In the body,
Over the whole body.
Let's do another breath now.
Peace is just a breath away,
But you need to remember to take that breath.
So there's a couple of things that you can do to instill this habit.
I suggest you try them all and keep going with those that work.
The first is to take a breath when you notice yourself feeling anxious or overwhelmed or otherwise with a compromised mental state.
You use your mental state as a trigger to take that calm,
Mindful breath.
The second suggestion is to tie the behavior of a single,
Mindful,
Calm breath to an environmental trigger.
For example,
Every time you enter a room,
You take one slow,
Deep,
Mindful breath.
And that's training you to be regularly and consistently taking those breaths.
And thus,
You'll be maintaining a more peaceful mindset throughout the day.
The final suggestion would be to get a watch or set an alarm or use an app that will beep at hourly intervals.
Every hour,
On the hour,
That beep,
That alarm,
Reminds you to take one slow,
Deep,
Mindful breath.
Over time,
Throughout the day,
You'll be taking 10 to 16 mindful breaths.
And in this way,
You will be calming yourself down and grounding yourself in the present moment.
And in that present moment,
You'll attain peace.
