Blogging and Breathing

Breathing is so underrated. The chaos and anxieties of our every day lives takes up so much of our attention that it is easy to forget to sit down and just breathe sometimes. Seriously, if you really think about it for a moment, how many times a day do you even realize that you are breathing? I could reasonably guess almost never. How many hours, minutes, and seconds do you use worrying about things you can't control or dwelling on things that happened in the past?

For me, it was the first 17 years of my life.

I spent 50% of my time worrying and the other 50% trying to come up with a plausible explanation as to why I worried a lot. No matter what I did, I always managed to find some way or some thing to worry about.

So that brings me to why exactly this blog page is called "Blogging and Breathing". As soon as I got the help I needed for my anxiety, I sought out techniques to slowly and surely rid my life of at least some anxiety. Here are the 4 techniques I used that could be helpful to anyone reading this.

Step 1: Exercise. According to the ADAA, " Exercise may improve mental health by helping the brain cope better with stress". Along with that, help treat anxiety disorders temporarily and in a healthy way just like ibuprofen can help a head ache. I can't even begin to describe the effect exercise has had on my life. I began running just around the time my anxiety got really bad and it had me feeling better within the first week of doing it. Not only that, but I started to clean up my diet that was little to no good at the time. My grades got tremendously better and my life became brighter.

Step 2: Friends and family. This may be a given for some people but one of the biggest things that anyone has ever told me is whenever you are feeling that loneliness that is associated with anxiety, reach out to the ones who love you the most. It's not just the fact that you need to here you are loved but sometimes being around people who are positive influences in your life can improve your mood and get your mind off of your worries.

Step 3: Journal and set goals. This is a biggie. You are separating what is important and what is irrelevant (a.k.a your anxieties). A goal could be as simple as "I am going to walk 10 minutes each day" or "I am going to read two books this week" or even "I am going to try to talk to a new person each day this week". A goal is something that is ultimately going to help you put your worries in the trash so that you can put positve and driven ideas into your mind. Once you have set a goal, journal about it so that you can see your progress. You can also use the jounral to write in whenever you are having a rough day. Journal's are a great tool to see how far you've come and how far you are going to go.

Step 4: Breathing and Meditation. Haha way to come full circle Lauren. After 4 years of having little to no panic attacks, I thought that there were no other things I needed to do with my anxiety. However, I started to realize that I wasn't sleeping well. I soon found out that it was because my mind was too active at night and I was sub-consciously thinking about everything I had to do the next day and week. My doctor suggested meditation and breathing exercises. I decided to try it reluctantly. I remember thinking "this is so stupid", I breathe all of the time. But I bought the app anyways and began to meditate every night. The instructor on my phone would tell me to focus on my breathing and how each part of my body feels each day. He would lead me through several breathing exercises for about 10 minutes and then I would go to bed. Each night I was doing this, I suddenly started to fall asleep faster and get higher quality sleep overall. I pondered what he said after each mediation. What if I allowed myself to focus more about being in the moment? and then enjoying each step along the way? I began to do just that and the results were incredible.

So, breathing and blogging. Why? I've asked myself that same question several times. Is it because I thought the title just flows? Lol yes and no. The real reason I called this page that is because I believe that the single most important thing to do no matter what you are going through is to breathe. Sit back, put your phone, laptop, etc, away and focus on the moment you are in right now. Focusing on the beautiful art of breathing in itself relaxes the body and rewards it with the breathe it so desperately needs. I'm not going to sit here and tell you to make it a habit, but I am going to suggest that you maybe try it. You never know what may happen.

See you next week,

Lo