3 minute de-stress exercise

are you like me and hunched over at your computer like egore? yeah. try this.

at your desk:

  • close your eyes. if that would make you look like a weirdo at work, just focus. feet on the ground. turn your attention inward. find the midline that goes from the ground up through the top of your head.
  • take the attention that's been flying back and forth between the computer screen, your eyeballs, and your brain and bring it into your body. feel your feet.
  • breathe. inhale deeply, feeling the breath move down into your low belly. exhale slowly and feel the breath move up through the midline and out the top of your head. imagine your nervous system calming with each breath.
  • check in with your jaw and face muscles. relax.
  • relax tops of shoulders. on an inhale, shrug shoulders up and and little forward. exhale, roll them back around and slowly down and draw the tips of your shoulder blades down and out to the sides. repeat as needed.
  • remember that you are a soul having a human experience and it's all good.

even better:: stand up and go outside. take your shoes off if you can.

  • find your midline and find a comfortable standing position.
  • feel all four corners of your feet on the ground. see if you can imagine back body meeting front body, whatever that means to you.
  • you can do all the above exercises here.
  • inhale circle arms to the sky, then hands to prayer. do this a few times with breath.
  • on an exhale, bending knees slightly, gently fold forward, focusing on the muscles in your legs rather than your back for support. relax back, engage legs a little and breathe. if you have any pain at all, STOP, and just do the standing breathing exercises.
  • let your head hang, release neck. release whatever crazy energy you're hanging onto into the ground.
  • inhale, gently return to standing, engaging legs, easy on back.
  • take arms straight out to either side, palms facing out away from you. with breath, close a fist with each hand, finger by finger. thumb, forefinger, middle, right, pinky.
  • rotate wrists around and do the same thing with palms facing in.
  • return to the breath down to the lower belly and back up.
  • look at the sky. take another breath. go back to work all zenned out.

this also works if you're not not working at a computer at all, but your kids are screaming at you or what have you. 

remember you are loved.

namaste.