Is “Just Breathe” Good Advice?

Vishrutha Thulasiram
Mar 18, 2022
3 min read

If there’s one thing we can all agree on irrespective of what we do day to day is that our lives are very fast paced. So every time you stop to catch your breath it feels like you’re not moving ahead while everybody else has either given a ted talk or brought their first house! It’s extremely easy to forget that we all have our own path, our own speed, our own milestones to trace. It’s even easier to fall into the black hole that is FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. Do you ever feel like your FOMO is grander than your life and dreams? Well, it does feel like that sometimes (read: a lot aka after doom scrolling). So then what do you do, when FOMO and burn out knock the breath out of you? When all you want to do is curl up under your blanket and not leave?

Well, the answer it’s kind of counter-intuitive. Oh! My dear friend if you haven’t guessed already. It is to quite literally catch your breath. To slow down and retrospect and prioritize. It sounds difficult and impossible when like most people you have a lot on your plate, mind and to-do list. But trust me it does work. It will help you keep going and even go farther with less energy. So how do you catch your breath? Here are some ways to do so:

1. Deep belly breathing

This is a technique that will help stimulate your vagus nerve and physiologically create ease and reduce stress in your body. There are quite a few ways of achieving this exact result; like meditation, yoga, diaphragmatic breathing, and 4-4-4-4 technique to name a few. Here is a very simple way to do it called deep belly breathing. What you have to do is sit up straight and roll your shoulders back. Then place one palm on your belly and the other on your chest. First notice where your breath goes to your chest or your belly. Then focus on the movement of air in and out. Now focus on consciously breathing into your belly. Literally feel your belly expand on inhaling and going in on exhaling. Repeat this for a minute or two.

2. Work on your hobbies

We all found our hobbies when we did because we either felt passionate about it or were curious to learn something. Whatever the reason maybe consider picking up one of your hobbies when you feel low or in a rut. You don’t have to be any good at it. Just enjoy taking a breather and have fun doing something you genuinely love. In case you’ve forgotten what hobbies are, they can be anything from reading, making playlists for every mood, writing, painting, cleaning or even dressing up and taking pictures of yourself!

3. Spend time in nature

There is an increasing body of research that supports the therapeutic and healing powers of spending time in nature. The Japanese people have been harnessing this potential for a long time, so much so they even have a word for it called ‘shinrin-yoku’ or forest bathing. Recently, Canada even introduced ‘nature therapy’ as a prescription under medical care. Just by being in nature you can heal your mind, body and spirit.

4. Spend time moving your body

Going about our days we often forget to move our bodies, resulting in pent up tension in different areas. If you spend a lot of time sitting and working at your desk it’s likely you have a lot of tension in your jaws, neck and shoulders. We also tend to hold emotions in our muscles and through movement we can release these emotions. This is now even used in a supplementary medical therapy known as myofascial release. The simplest thing for us to do would be to take a break every 2 hours to stretch and move that bod!

5. Sky watching

This is something I have been doing since I was a child and has never, not once failed me. And it’s as simple as it seems, all you do is literally look at the sky. For extra impact look up at the sky take a deep breath in, close your eyes, smile wide and exhale loudly. Repeat this as many times as you like. It is so calming and humbling. And you get to notice just how wonderful the sky is. How despite changing every second of everyday it’s always gonna be there. Come what may rain, sunshine or clouds, the sky it’s always there. So go stare at the sky and smile.