It’s all about the Breath

This month’s self-care project is all about the Breath

September’s health promotional campaigns are ‘Breathe Better September’ and ‘Mental Health Awareness’.

This month’s Sage Self-Care Project will offer practical tips on developing breath awareness and fostering a daily breathing practice.

Breathing Better through September will be posted daily practices through Sage’s social media platforms –

For more information – please get in touch with me at charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz 

You can also download a FREE audio file of Sage Practice’s two-minute breathing exercise here

Have the Courage to Lean in

When you notice you are worrying about something you think might happen or you are ruminating about something from the past, use this awareness as an opportunity. This is because as you become conscious of your reaction to a situation, you have arrived at a ‘choice’ point – and a chance to change tack. You can either keep imagining your familiar unhelpful thoughts or try something new.

This month’s self-care project

Have the courage to lean into your experience and challenge your thoughts

This does not mean judging the situation as good or bad. Instead, it involves focusing on your feelings and identifying what is (and isn’t) in your control.

When you catch your overactive mind – try to

  • Acknowledge your emotions and feelings
  • Notice your how you are reacting to the stressful situation

Focus on the facts – rather than your interpretation or assumptions. Our worries and stressors are often not always based in fact.

Ask yourself:

  • What am I feeling?
  • What are these emotions?
  • How would I like this situation to turn out?
  • What are the facts?

Focus on WHAT you are feeling rather than WHY you are feeling a certain way.

If you cannot acknowledge your emotions and are clinging to negative thoughts – try grounding and breathing techniques such as:

  • Feeling the sensation of your feet on the ground and looking at the sky
  • Breathing in and out through your nose
  • Spending a few minutes focusing totally on the sound and feeling of your breath
  • Notice the what else is happening around you (sounds, the weather etc)

This recalibration can help you put things into perspective.

  • Is your worrying valid?
  • What action do you need to take?

Also contemplate whether or not your ruminating is supporting you, or is it pulling you back down into mental overwhelm?

Next time you catch those busy and unhelpful thoughts in your head and recognise them for what they are – congratulate yourself !!   Let go of the story associated with them and use your breath to bring you back into the here and now.

If you have any questions and for more information – please contact me at charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz 

You can also download a FREE audio file of Sage Practice’s two-minute breathing exercise here

What is your foundation for self-care?

When you get that feeling of not having enough time and being rushed, and your body starts to feel hot and constricted, it’s easy to get flustered and start panicking. Then you begin to question whether you are good enough at what you do – taking yourself down a vicious spiral.

The reality is that there will always be situations and interactions that stress us out and trigger catastrophic thinking. That good old feeling of the knot in your stomach – panic! Is it going to be all right? Am I good enough? Why did I say that? etc

Stressing about the uncertainty of life is a natural response to uncontrollable events. No one can change that. However, you can change your ability to re-focus your energy when you get knocked off kilter.

I recommend using your breath and connecting with the ground underneath you. When you do this – you redirect your attention away from your head towards your body. While this is not easy and may not always be comfortable, it brings you into the present moment. This is one of the best foundations for our wellbeing that we have.

This month’s self-care project

Try to practice conscious breathing for two minutes  

Here’s how – download the FREE audio file of Sage Practice’s two-minute breathing exercise here

Conscious breathing is one of your best foundations for self-care – if you are alive, you always have your breath – you just need to remember to use it. Practising conscious breathing regularly makes you more likely to connect with your breath to manage stress effectively

When you get caught in panic and negative self-talk, notice that and redirect your attention to your breath. When you do this, you are not suppressing your thoughts – you are creating the opportunity for a choice to break the repetitive thought patterns that are not necessarily helping you.

Keep things simple – take one breath at a time – I know it’s hard to do, but it is a sustainable and effective self-care practice.

    • Set a time for 2 minutes and put your phone on silent
    • Either listen to the download or
    • Feel your feet on the ground (or your thighs on the chair) supported by the ground
    • Close your eyes if you feel comfortable or look downwards
    • Close your mouth and relax your jaw
    • Breathe only in and out your nose
    • Feel the breath coming into your side ribs on the inhale
    • As you exhale, activate your stomach and follow the breath up and out the nose
    • Stay here and keep breathing until the timer goes off

When you finish, reconnect with the feeling of the ground underneath you and continue your day.

You will be amazed how much a regular conscious breathing practice can help your mental and physical health. 

Contact me at charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz to establish a personalised practice that you can incorporate into your everyday life. 

You can visit me online or in person if you live in Wellington.

 

Use your breath to help you untangle

Time often appears to speed up at the end of the year and it’s easy for us to feel over-committed and exhausted. If you allow yourself to get tangled up trying to achieve and “finish” too much, you end up stealing energy from yourself – and there’s no prize for that!

Practising conscious breathing is the perfect self-care gift. The more aware you become of your breathing patterns, the more you can use your breath to give you energy and keep you focused as you navigate your way through the frantic build-up to the year’s end.

Remember that you always have your breath with you. You can use it as a wellbeing tool to help you increase your stamina, enhance relaxation and recovery, as well as improve your sleep. There is no doubt that these are all wonderful benefits for both your mental and physical health.

This month’s self-care project

Try creating a breathing practice while you are on the move

Here’s how:

Place some small stickers around your house or workplace, where you will see them often. Every time you see a sticker – pause for a minute, feel your feet on the ground and bring your attention to your breath (there’s no need to sit down and stop what you are doing)

Give yourself a couple of minutes to focus on your breath.

    • Close your mouth and listen to your breath flow in and out of your nose
    • As you pay attention to your breath – watch it naturally slow down (be sure not to strain your breathing in any way) 
    • Listen and feel the breath expand into your side ribs and belly as you inhale
    • Exhale from your stomach and consciously relax your body as you breathe out

Stay here breathing for 4 or 5 breaths and then carry on doing whatever you were doing….

Try and have enough stickers in a range of places around home and work that will remind you to stop, pause and focus on your breath for a couple of minutes about 3 or 4 times a day – your mind and body will love you for it….

At night if you are having trouble getting to sleep, place your hands on your belly and feel the movement of the breath under your hands.

You will be amazed how much a regular conscious breathing practice can help your mental and physical health. It doesn’t have to be long and complicated – contact me directly so I can help you improve your wellbeing for 2023  charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz 

How do you champion self-care at work?

A key component of self-care is being able to recognise your thought patterns and reactions. As your awareness develops you have a greater chance of knowing which thoughts to respond to and which ones to let go of. This can be a great strategy to support you in being less reactive at work.

Self-care is fundamental to healthy workplaces because if you can’t look for ways to manage your own behaviours then you can’t bring those skills into the workplace. The more you learn to recognise your unhealthy behaviours [yes, we all have them], the more likely that you will be less critical when you see them in others.

Many of the stressors generated in the workplace come from reactive workflows. This can create feelings of panic and pressure cascades across the business. As a one-off this is manageable, but when it happens regularly it compromises people’s wellbeing. The next time you decide to move the goalposts – consider what sort of impact this will have – how can you manage this change request with a wellbeing perspective?

This month’s self-care project

Pay attention to your behaviours at work 

How are your current work demands impacting you right now? Take some time to reflect on how you behave at work when you are under stress.

Pick one characteristic or common habit pattern and get curious about what happens   

Examples could include:

    • How do you communicate with your peers?
    • How do you respond when someone interrupts you?
    • Do you make time for a lunch break – and/or do you book yourself into other people’s break time? 
    • Do you email people during out-of-work hours?

You may recognise patterns such as

    • The way someone at work annoys you (– this could be an opportunity to notice where you behave similarly)
    • Skipping breakfast before coming to work and running yourself on empty  
    • Stress and tension building up in your body
    • Anything else that irks you  

Start small and keep it simple. Choose one habit pattern and become curious about what happens to your body, breath and mind when you take notice of your reactions.

You may find it helpful to make notes – but try not to start analysing.

The key is to become aware of your thoughts and actions. None of us are perfect, be kind and caring towards yourself. When you practice awareness with self-compassion – you are more likely to able to communicate clearly and honestly with others.

To find more information on how you can incorporate self-care and workplace wellbeing practices into your organisation, contact me today at charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz 

How do you respond to your self-talk?

Our reactions to events and challenges that happen throughout our life can affect the quality of our self talk and our behaviour towards others. Most of us speak more harshly to ourselves than we do to others – and often we are unaware of the constant critique that goes in our head.

Over time many of us begin to believe our internal stories and this affects our mood, our energy and our ability to connect.

This month’s self-care project

Practice noticing the impact of your self talk

Take some time this month to begin to recognise what thoughts you have that cause you negative feelings or stress you out. 

Start jotting down the regular commentary you have about yourself – notice how your self-talk affects you. Look for any patterns.

As you recognise some of you more regular commentaries – it can be helpful to contemplate. Is this thought helping or hindering me? If it is not helpful – try and let it go. Easier said than done I know – but remember you are not your thoughts – and, you don’t have to believe every thought you have.  

For some reason our brains are wired to focus more on the negative chatter than the positive.

Whenever you can catch yourself in a negative dialogue about yourself; ‘what you did’, ‘why someone said something’, ‘what you should have done’ etc  – try see the thought for what it is –and refocus your attention.

Your breath is a helpful tool for this – breathe in and out through your nose and let your feet feel supported by the floor. Stay with your breath as long as you need.

As you notice your self-talk focus on the “what’s”….

  • What are you telling yourself?
  • What are you feeling in your body?
  • What is your breath doing?

Also consider …

  • What other ways could I look at this situation?
  • What evidence is there that this thought is true?
  • What would I say to a friend or loved one in this situation?

This practice is not about ignoring your feelings and experiences – it is more about developing investigative tools to help you release yourself from the constriction they create – hopefully supporting you to feel less overwhelmed from them.

To find more information on how you can incorporate self-care and wellbeing practices into your day to day life, contact me today charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz 

How do you respond to your emotions?

Most of us are constantly engulfed in a train of continuous thoughts and feelings. How we choose to respond to them is up to us.

The more often we can respond objectively to the stories we tell ourselves, the more opportunity we have in finding beauty in our daily grind. We are the only ones who knows what goes on in our minds – and we are the only ones who can do anything about it.

Self-care is on-going and requires constant attention with compassion. One framework to help us in this enquiry is to investigate our body’s physical response to our emotions and reactions.

August’s Sage Self-Care project

Practice recognising the sensations that accompany your emotions

Everything that we experience is individual – so rather than getting stuck in the ‘why’ something is happening to you – try and focus on the ‘what’ is happening and where you feel it. This helps you stay in the present and also keeps you in your body rather than in your head.

See if you can begin to notice…

  • When you feel content – what is happening?
  • When you feel disconnected – what is happening?
  • Where do you feel expansive?
  • Where do you feel contracted?
  • What stories do you tell yourself?

This is a visceral practice. One that is asking you to feel your experience rather than analyse it from your intellect.

As you develop your enquiry – give yourself permission to…

  • Embrace and engage in your experience – hold it without expressing or suppressing
  • Breathe – in and out your nose, try and stay with the natural rhythm of your breath
  • When you feel a sense of calm – decide what sort of action you want to take

Remember – your breath is always with you. As you develop a relationship with your breath, it becomes more available to you to use as a tool to decompress from stressful situations.

 

To find more information on how you can incorporate self-care and wellbeing practices into your daily life, please contact me  charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz

 

Finding the strength to feel vulnerable

Every emotion we experience has a polarity and we are all affected by a continuum of different moods. Yet our society expects us to focus on the positive side of everything, and asks that we be continually on top of our game. Realistically, this is not possible, nor is it helpful for our self-care. Everyone has times of low energy and unpleasant mind states and when we deny ourselves from feeling into our experience, we are potentially missing an opportunity for connection.

The next time you find yourself portraying a persona of invincibility – maybe step back and notice whats happening underneath. Are you as confident as you portray – or are you shielding vulnerable feelings? Remember – its okay to not feel okay.

When you have the courage to lean in and allow yourself to feel vulnerable, you are making a conscious choice to connect with whats truly happening for you. Even though it may feel unpleasant – if you let yourself feel it – maybe you can start to heal it.

July’s Sage self-care project

How do you deal with obstacles you face?

Try recognising ways that you meet obstacles that come up in your daily life.

Do you notice a pattern of instinctively wanting to shut things out and pretend that everything is good?

  • Are you able to soften – when your impulse is to be hard
  • Can you reflect on your own reaction to a situation – rather than focusing on your opinion about it?
  • Could you be generous when you instinctively feel like hoarding?
  • Do you notice your self-talk when faced with an obstacle?
  • Are you able to hear your inner critic for what it is? 

Perhaps you could try:

  • focusing on your breath
  • writing or drawing things down
  • talking to someone 
  • walking in nature

When you experience overwhelming emotions – allow yourself to respond to them. Give yourself permission to cry if you need or tell someone if you are feeling angry. Notice what happens when you acknowledge and identify how you are feeling.

Trust in your strength to feel vulnerable.

If you would like more information on how to incorporate some tools or practices that you could use in your day to day life, please contact me  charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz

 

 

 

Sneak in a siesta

Sleep is one of our greatest elixirs. We all feel so much better after a decent nights sleep. The quality of our sleep greatly impacts our health, so it’s worthwhile putting in the effort to optimise the benefits. Developing good sleep hygiene is one of the greatest self-care practices we can apply.

Sleep is a complete science and a topic that is well worth investigating – especially if it is something that you struggle with. Research claims that sleep can be both preventative and restorative for a wide range of mental and physical ailments, yet studies show that up to 40% of the population have problems with sleep.

How much attention do you give to creating healthy and sound sleep?

Developing restorative sleep is an adaptive practice throughout our lives. There are many contributing factors to both healthy and disruptive sleep.

Here are some practical suggestions on how you can initiate restorative sleep patterns. Pick out what is relevant for you.

  1. Firstly, work out for yourself how much sleep you actually need. The most common recommendations are between 7 – 9 hours, however this differs for everyone. Spend a bit of time exploring how much your body needs.
  2. Tune into your natural body cycle – are you a lark or and owl? An early or late riser? Plan your schedule to support your circadian clock so that you optimise your energy levels during the day. 
  3. Learn to siesta – power napping is king! Even just a quick 10-minute snooze when your energy levels are low can regulate your body clock and improve your nighttime sleep. The action of lying down to rest is healing in itself. 

The following actions can help you foster healthier sleep.

  • Aim to go to bed around the same time each night
  • Create a relaxation routine before bed
      • Reduce screen time an hour before bed
      • Make your bedroom as dark and cool as possible 
      • Turn all appliances off at the wall (including standby lights) 
      • Practice conscious breathing and relaxation techniques to help your mind unwind
  • When you wake – open the curtains and gaze at the natural morning light for a few minutes. This action helps activate your body clock and supports the body’s physiological functions including your digestion and the production of melatonin
  • Avoid wearing sunglasses in the morning so you absorb vitamin D from the sunlight
  • Exercise earlier in the day (rather than later)
  • Hydrate more than you already do  – drink plenty of water
  • Eat a smaller meal at the end of the day (try and make lunch your largest meal).

Try making this month’s self care project about fostering good sleep patterns to help strengthen your immune system over the winter.

If you would like to investigate this in more detail contact me at charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz

I can teach you some breathing and relaxation techniques to help calm your mind to switch off and get a better sleep.

 

 

 

How do you keep your inner light glowing?

Holding ourselves steady in the storms of today’s world requires on-going mental strength and a great deal of kindness. When we practice staying still with our breath and focus on the light in our heart, we begin to develop the muscle self-compassion. The more often we do this in times of ease – the greater the resource we have to draw from in times of distress.

I lived in the country as a child and there were big winter storms that often brought down the power lines and the electricity would go out for hours. I remember being frightened in the dark with the wind and rain howling outside. Once my mother lit the room with candles, I felt safe in the dark night storm.

This memory reminds me that love is the only thing bigger than fear. When we direct love internally towards ourselves, we have a much greater chance of remembering to listen to our own needs and support ourselves in ways that will replenish us.

As an adult I need to remember to turn my light switch on every day. This helps me consciously redirect my attention towards the light in my heart. We all have pains and suffering – and if we let them they create a curtain blocking off the glow of our internal light.

None of us can take away the darkness we have experienced in our lives, but we can choose to kindle the light.

May’s Self-Care Project – Standing in your Light

The breath is an anchor from our mind to our heart. It is a pathway towards light. This month, take a few moments each day to give yourself space to breathe. Try making the time every day to synchronise 8 conscious breaths with simple arm movements.

With each movement try to stay focused on one complete breath at a time.

Here’s how:

  • Stand comfortably – feet slightly apart. If standing isn’t an option for you – sitting is perfect. (use a chair that allows the spine to be straight)
  • Allow your arms to hang beside your body
  • Ensure that your head is straight and look forward (check that your chin is not aiming towards the roof or the floor)
  • Sigh out a couple of times and let the shoulders fall away from your ears
  • Close your mouth so that the breath comes in and out through your nose.

When you feel ready to begin:

  • Place one hand on top of each other at the centre of your chest – ensure you are comfortable
  • Imagine a warm golden light of sunshine glowing under your hands
  • Spend a bit of time here visualising this warm glow
  • Begin conscious breathing – breath in through your nose and simultaneously open your arms out wide to the side of your body
  • As you exhale out your nose – bring your hands back to the centre
  • At the end of the exhale visualise sunlight glowing inside you
  • Repeat for 7 more breaths
  • When you have finished stay here with your hands resting on your chest area for a couple of minutes breathing naturally.

Stopping and being still is harder than it sounds – so go easy on yourself.

Don’t worry if your mind wanders and you get distracted (it most probably will) – just try and bring yourself back to the exercise and focus on another breath.

Remember this is a self-care practice, one to be done with kindness and compassion.

If you have any questions about conscious breathing –  or want help to develop a tailor made practice to support your mental wellbeing, please email me – charlotte@sagepractices.co.nz