
Categories
- At work mindfulness (3)
- Choice Theory/Reality Therapy (5)
- Counselling (6)
- Kindfulness (15)
- Mindfulness (84)
- Mindfulness Courses (12)
- Mindfulness Exercises (6)
- Online Mindfulness Courses (3)
- Self Compassion (3)
- Video (1)
In this short extract from my event on happiness in December 2021, I take you through the popular 444 breathing exercise with an imagined flow of calm. Paying attention to your breathing can be almost immediately calming for the nervous system and I explain more about this below. It’s an excellent and quick mindfulness exercise also.
Neurons, the cells that make everything work, are found in three parts of your nervous system: brain (500 million cells or neurons), stomach (100 million neurons) and heart (40,000 neurons)
The neurons in your stomach and heart carry information through and from your brain and enable gut and heart to function as best they can. These are in communication with each other all the time and influence each other, including emotionally. For instance, something you are nervous about (a job interview that’s starting in a few minutes, say) affects the emotional part of your brain, your stomach (‘butterflies in your tummy’) and your heart which beats faster.
So calming your body helps to calm your mind. That’s why in this exercise you imagine the sense of calm flowing to your heart and stomach.
This is also a simple and effective mindfulness exercise that brings you into the moment while you are doing it. Mindfulness makes it easier to spot those random moments of happiness and well being that often go unnoticed in the rush of the day.
This Daily Bell might also interest you:
Most of us go around thinking thoughts detrimental to our own happiness, Ayya Khema points out in Know where you’re going. When you catch yourself repeating a loop of gloomy thoughts, try shifting your awareness to whatever is going on around you in the present moment.
Try: Shift your awareness either by saying ‘Not happening now’ or by moving your attention to your breathing at a specific point such as the tip of your nose.
My 15-lesson course Easy Mindfulness can help you learn many mindfulness techniques to bring more calm to your life.
Image by Bella Huang on Unsplash
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.