Sneaky Self-Care Tip 1: Breathwork

Our breath is the one thing we have with us all the time. From the first breath we take when we come into this world until our last, it is our constant companion.

My favorite self-care tools are often the most subtle and sneaky. No one else needs to know that I am doing something different with my breathing to ground myself. It’s just important that I know I am doing something to support myself.

Breathing is the one process in our body that can both happen automatically, without thinking about it, and that we can also control when desired. Something beautiful can take our breath away. We can sigh when feeling frustrated or yawn when we are exhausted. It informs us about our world and can impact how we interpret the world around us.

Extending our exhales is one of the simplest things we can do to support our nervous system so that we feel safer in our bodies. My favorite breathing practice is to do some Ocean Breathing with an extended exhale.

To practice Ocean Breathing:

• Begin by creating an ocean-like sound in the back of your throat as if you are trying to whisper or fog a mirror.
• You can start by doing this with mouth breathing and slowly move towards breathing in and out of your nose to make it more subtle.
• This will sound like a slight snoring or Darth Vader sound in the back of the throat.

To practice Extended Exhales:

• Breathe in for the count of 3 or 4
• Breathe out for the count of 5 or 6
• Repeat for 1-5 minutes.

My favorite part about this is that no one needs to know that you are doing anything differently. Only you need to know that you are intentionally changing your breathing to change your physical and mental state.

I invite you to take a moment and try to breathe this way for a few minutes each day. Slowly building the muscle memory for these techniques before you actually go into a stressful situation makes it much more likely that you will be able to access these tools when you feel triggered, anxious, restless, bored or scared.

Feel free to check out this short video on Ocean Breathing and share it with anyone you know who might benefit from having some sneaky self-care in their life.

If you enjoyed these self-care tips and want to learn more, I am so excited to share that I will be launching my online course Self-Care for Social Workers on September 18th! This course is a step-by-step guide to building resiliency & creating your own home practice to help prevent burnout. 

You will receive over 4 hours of:

• Trauma-Informed Yoga Classes
• Guided Meditations
• Breathing Exercises
• Sleep Support
• Tips to Build a Home Practice
• And more! 

To be the first to know when the course launches and to have access to the biggest discounts, join my newsletter here.  
​If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. 
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May we all love the life we live…
Becca

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