100 Healthy Living Tips #6 - Add Easy Deep Breathing Exercises to Your Day

Deep breathing exercises can calm stress, reduce blood pressure, improve asthma and even help you lose weight! What's more deep breathing is free and you can practice it anytime, anyplace. We all breathe, it's true, but most of us don't really inhale to our full lung capacity - we don't slow down and breathe mindfully.

Think about it, when you're stressed out, your breathing tends to become quicker and shallower. Here is a simple, deep breathing exercise to practice whenever you think of it:

Sit or stand in a comfortable position. Draw in your breath and count to six. Breath slowly through your nose, filling your lungs with energy-giving oxygen. Then hold that breath and count to six again - slowly. Next, exhale slowly to the count of eight, through your mouth. Repeat several times.

Exhaling more air than you inhale helps clean out your lungs of any stale air or accumulated toxins. You feel more relaxed and more energetic.

How can you remember to do deep breathing exercises throughout the day?

• How about using a reminder as your password on some of your computer accounts - like "breathe deep" or "breathejoy" - whatever might help you remember.
• Remember that vision board? Post a little reminder on it, where it catches your eye several times a day.
• When you're standing in line at the grocery store, instead of becoming impatient that the line isn't moving faster, simply do your deep breathing exercises!
• Every time you stop at a red light, do a round of deep breathing.

As deep breathing exercises become more of a habit, whenever you get stressed out, your first thought will be "slow down and take a deep breath!" Over time, you'll see the many benefits of deep breathing in your health, your mental outlook and your energy.

Read more about the benefits of deep breathing.

Recommended reading for deep breathing exercises and weightloss:

Jumpstart Your Metabolism: How To Lose Weight By Changing The Way You Breathe

Summer Health Tips for Busy Moms!

Let's face it - in the business of summer time, it's hard to stick to our health regime. The kids are home from school, creating a wonderful chaos, we're busy with outdoor activities, barbeque's, camping and outings. When we barely have time to comb our hair in the mornings, it's no wonder we forget basic things like taking our vitamins, drinking lots of water and going to yoga class.

One way to make sure you take care of yourself , as well as everyone else, in the summer is to be organized. If you're a mom, you are probably used to that!

For me, it isn't' so much the kids - who are all grown now - it's the grand kids making life hurried and busy. Here's what I do to make sure my health regime doesn't suffer in the summer months.

• Get up a bit earlier - It's amazing what you can do for yourself with an extra 30 minutes a day. Get out your vitamins - or better yet, get out a whole week's worth and put each day in a zip lock snack bag, have a cup of coffee and read the paper, while eating some nutritious whole grain cereal or do some yoga stretches.
  
• Take advantage of nap times to spend time on a hobby or read a book. If the kids are too old for naps, institute "quiet time" every afternoon for an hour or two. I had my own daycare for years and for 2 hours every afternoon, while the kids slept, I had my hobby - bead work. Sometimes those 2 relaxing hours made all the rest possible.
  
• For dinner, think nutritious salads. Let the kids help with shopping for ingredients and preparation. They'll be more likely to eat some! Ask the kids what sort of veggies they would like to eat and then buy some. You might be surprised at what they choose. Make a game of choosing a new veggie each week and finding recipes on the Internet on ways to use it.
• Get your exercise by taking the kids outdoors for a walk in the park or a bike ride. Take them swimming and you get in the water too. Swimming is great exercise!
• Laughter is the best medicine for stress. Take a break and watch a funny movie with the kids.
• Don't let summer stress get you down. Remember, all the tasks and to-do lists will still be there when summer is over. Take a break and do the minimum for a while. Take deep breathes and relax and enjoy your kids. They're only young once!

Another important thing I do for myself each and every day, summer and winter, is to drink an easy, nutritious smoothie each morning. I use Uri Life whole food powders that are quick, handy and nutritious. The Feast contains:

• 30 Antioxidant Rich Fruits & Berries
• 30 Powerful Greens & Vegetables
• 11 Nutrient Dense Seeds, Nuts & Sprouts
• 83+ Active Enzymes & Fulvic Minerals
• 22 Strains of Resilient Living Probiotics
  

Also available is Beyond Berries, for all the nutrition of antioxidant rich blueberries, cranberries, pomegranate, noni fruit, acai berries and much, much more. An extremely cost effective way to get all the goodies you need to stay healthy.


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