My valentine’s wish for Breath…

As we teeter towards that familiar date of February 14th and our thoughts turn to romance and how important that feeling is right now in our lives, I want to steer our focus on something that we all take for granted and I’m not talking about our partners, but about breathing!

As an anxious person generally, it is often my breath that reveals emotions and in fact, when I had severe back pain six years ago that was so bad, I was recommended surgery, it never occurred to me that it may all be because of I was feeling overwhelmed and depleted which was causing my body to react to the stress I was feeling inside.

It was at that point that I began yoga and learnt some valuable lessons on how to breath and being aware of my breath.

Today, I am reminded of that time in my life as we are in the midst of such worrying times that is leaving many of us mentally exhausted and if, like me you have been ill with Covid, physically exhausted too, and for some coping with ‘Long Covid’, our breathing has been compromised and will take a while to recover.

One of my coping mechanisms has been taking guided meditations that I practice at a quiet time in the day and this really helps me to stop and relax and just be in the moment.

One of my favourite apps that I really love is Chopra and today, in honour of self-love, try a nine minute session called Nadi Shodhana: It’s a great way to forget about everything else and just become aware of your breath.

Take care and shop the collection!