Elevate Your Mood With This Simple Breathing Practice
Need an afternoon pick me up?
If you get a little sluggish in the late afternoon like I do - this breath practice is a great pick me up to elevate your energy and mood. You can do it either seated or standing. Try it out and let me know how it goes!
The Inhale
Place your arms by your side. Take a deep breath into your belly. Stretch your arms out and all the way up, moving with your breath. When your lungs are full your arms should be fully stretched up over your head. Linger for a moment enjoying the fullness of your inhale.
The Exhale
Slowly exhale, synchronizing the movement with your breath, lower your arms back down by your side. Pause at the bottom of your exhale, enjoying the space you’ve just created.
Pro-tips
If you want to get fancy you can fold your 4 fingers into your palm, thumb out (like your hitch-hiking!) as you lift and lower your arms. And, once you get into a good rhythm with your arm movements and breath synchronizing, start to engage & tighten all of the muscles in your arms and hands and stretch them out as wide as you can. Take up as much space as you can — see if you can sit up even taller for a more invigorating effect and stretch your arms out even wider feeling your fingers engaged and long.
You can do as many rounds as feels right to you. We like to do this breath in cycles of 9.
Enjoy & let us know how it goes!