Small Changes Today, Lead to Big Change Tomorrow

5 Benefits to Cultivating a Breath Mindset

If you want to be happy then you have to start acting happy. Every day. Every single day you must take time to separate yourself from the stresses that keep you dwelled up in the past and allow your mind to be free. 15 minutes is a great start. Separate your mind by centering and slowing down. Focusing instead on the inhales and the exhales.

Our world reflects to us what we are continually thinking about, so separate from the anxiety and allow yourself to breathe. See yourself being joyful and happy. Psychology will tell us that we are damaging our bodies by thinking negatively and actually shortening our lives! If we think about being stressed, overworked, depressed and we are constantly thinking and talking about it, then guess what?

You’re going to be exactly that. AND! That is what you will see reflected in the world around you.

15 minutes of calm breathing helps swipe the board clean so you can reset your thinking.

Below are 5 benefits of how a breath mindset can alter your daily life

1. Create Your Own Vision

You are responsible for how you show up and interact with the world around you. And how you show up is a byproduct of how you think. If you hold a lot of resentment in your heart and always expect the worst from others then that is what you will see and be attracted to.

There’s a saying that you will get what you seek when you’re ready to receive it. You might think but I’m ready now!

• A healthy relationship isn’t going to find you until you’ve dropped your negative chatter about relationships.
• You won’t find yourself in a healthy body if your thoughts about your body are still limited by old beliefs no matter how much you workout.
• The six-figure salary you’re after won’t appear while you continue to have poor money management.

When you are ready to see real change you must begin the work of changing your thought patterns.

Flip the switch to a healthier output.

The truth is you will never see all of life’s miracles happening around you every day if you don’t take time to see them.

I think about this every time I go mushroom hunting. It’s always a great time walking in the woods and at first, I don’t see any. Then once I find one I start seeing another and another, and soon I can’t turn around without finding the fungi. My focus is on mushrooms, and once I see one my mind becomes tuned in to them, and more follows.

Start to catch yourself when you think negatively and immediately ( this takes effort ) separate yourself from the thought. Close your eyes, bring your focus to your breath, and breathe fully and slowly for 5–10 rounds of breath. Now replace the thought with what you’d like to see instead.

I have trained myself to do this. Whenever I find myself playing out random scenarios that will never happen in my mind and I can feel myself getting emotionally wrapped in them I immediately stop the thought. It takes effort to not continue down the path. But if I don’t then it leads to other confrontations in my head that are unhealthy and ego-driven. When I can, I stop the thought, separate myself, breathe, and imagine myself hugging this person, or seeing them in a moment of pure joy. It reminds me that they are human too and that what I truly want is peace.

Being happy starts when you short circuit those negative thoughts. It happens when you decide to not engage in gossip or online debates of the ego. It begins by taking time to separate yourself from the drama.

2. No More Ruminating

The best antidote for getting out of a poor mindset is to stop ruminating on the what if’s of life. People waste a lot of time and undue energy trying to fix things that are out of their control.

It’s hard to move beyond a loss in life, like that of a loved one or a broken heart and even being let go from a place of employment. We all have moments we wish we could undo. We all have those times that we wish we would have said or done something differently. Everyone alive has regrets but you are wasting your time thinking about the things outside your influence of change.

We, humans, tend to ruminate on the things outside of our control and this ruminating gives that thing, that person, that event power over you. It holds you back from living fully in the experiences happening right now.

I was hurt by someone I love deeply. This hurt led me to ruminate on what I could have said or done differently to make him still love me. It had me analyzing and judging every action between us. I found myself doing things in my life just to prove that I had moved beyond the hurt. I ruminated on it for so long that it became a part of my daily thoughts of unworthiness. This went on for longer than I care to admit, and ended once I realized that the event wasn’t the real issue, it was my thinking about it that did that. I was holding myself, prisoner, to an idea that was all in my head.

If you find yourself in this ruminating try coherent 5×5 breathing for 15 minutes. Simply inhaling to the count of 5 and exhaling to the count of 5. Set an intention to focus solely on the breath, then when you are done you can revisit your sadness from a clear mind and solutions will begin to reveal themselves to you. This is a great way to break repeating thought patterns and begin to replace them with new more empowering ones.

3. Expect the Best Possible Outcome

You get what you focus on so train yourself to focus on the best possible outcome. Why not? It’s a lot more fun than constantly dreading some horrible fate. As stated before, you get what you focus on, so try focusing on the best. Plant the seeds in your mind of what you’d like your life to look like, and then water those seeds with reinforcement of thought and behavior. Just like planting a garden, you learn valuable lessons along the way. Maybe your tomatoes grow with ease, but your cabbage skills need work. It’s the same with life, when things don’t go as planned, you take the lesson and try again. Stay focused on it turning out right for you.

Our brains are designed to seek out the worst-case scenario so there is work to be done here, but you will be amazing at what a little head-clearing can do. We actually need very little encouragement to stay focused and just a little effort daily will do the trick.

Marisa Peer tells people in her training to state the thing they most need to hear. It could be from your parents, your partner, your children, your boss, whomever. What is it that you most need to hear? Say it. Say it out loud to yourself and say it often. So often we wait to get that validation from the outside when you can start saying what you long to hear right now to yourself.

Try this: After you eat lunch find a place to sit and be for 5–15 minutes. Close your eyes and bring your focus to your breath. Direct your breath in through the nose and bring it deep into your belly. Then exhale gently out the mouth til all the air is out. Once you got that rhythm down add in what you most need to hear. Say it to yourself as you inhale, and as you exhale let go of any resistance to how it feels or sounds. Let the words fill you. See how this simple exercise affects the rest of your day. See how it helps you to show up more present and sure of yourself. See how it guides you to expect the best possible outcome.

4. Be a Problem Solver

Learn to tackle problems not run from them. This will keep your head sharp and help your mind find alternative ways out of any circumstance you find yourself in. By nature, we learn to avoid hard things. Or better stated, we learn to avoid things we think are going to be hard. Again this is our brain’s way of protecting us.

When you approach life as a problem solver you start realizing that for every problem a solution will follow. You won’t stay frustrated for long because you know the answer is out there.

Yes, things will still be hard and difficult somethings but knowing you can and will work your way through a problem takes some of the anxiety away. You will master the art of breaking things down into smaller chunks, and you might even find out that what seemed hard was nothing more than a half-hour phone conversation or a 20-minute online tutorial.

The cool thing about approaching life as a problem solver is that it takes your mind out of the busyness that turns small tasks into big tasks. It frees up space in your mind because it’s not a question of whether or not you will be figuring things out. You just tackle the issue and move along. The more you do it the easier it will become so start training yourself today.

5. Get Creative

Do not let life become a hamster wheel of survival. You are a creative being and you were meant to live a creative life. Remember to look around and develop an intuition that keeps you connected to your creative self.

• Pick up a notebook and write down the wonderful and inspiring things you hear throughout the day.
• Go see a play, movie, concert
• Take a drawing class
• Learn piano

Our minds thrive when they are inspired and working our minds in new ways is inspiring. Albert Einstein famously would play violin whenever he came up against a problem he couldn’t see through. Then he’s come back with fresh eyes and completes the math problem with ease.

I hear people say they don’t feel creative all the time for no other reason than that they aren’t good at it. Perhaps you’ve caught yourself saying something like…

• I can’t draw
• I have no rhythm
• I don’t hear the beat

I too have caught myself saying these things. I am not the best cook, but I like to get creative with my food. Am I ever going to be on one of the thousand cooking shows? NO. But I don’t need to, and either do you. No one is expecting you to be the next Picasso, so let that go and have fun. Let your creative life flourish, even if the world (or you) thinks it’s terrible. Not only will it give you a deeper appreciation for the talents of others, but it will also enrich your life in new ways and open the door of your mind to a more healthy balanced palette of experiences.

What is a breath mindset?

A breath mindset is using your breath to help support your mind in new and healthy ways.

• If you are done with feeling miserable or like a victim then it’s time to find your breath.
• If you are not interested in taking medication to numb your body of its senses it’s time to find your breath.
• If you feel like a slave to your anxiety, stress, or depression, it’s time to find your breath.
• If you have a tendency to dwell on the past and beat yourself up then it’s time to find your breath.

Your breath is your life-long companion and the antidote for what troubles your mind.

Breathwork is simple, but it is certainly not easy. It takes work, commitment, and courage to decide to look inward. You must be willing to get in touch with what is truly troubling you and seek solutions.

We are in a world of trouble because we let our troubles go and bury ourselves in distractions. This may be ok for a while, but not when you are ready to live a full rich life.

Breathwork helps you to see clearly and gives you the strength to stand in your truth. Breath mindset is about calming the breath that affects the heart that sends signals to your brain about what’s going on. Your mind then sends signals out to the nervous system that things are cool, calm and under control.

It’s called breathwork because it does take work, but really breath play is a better term. Learning to use your breath is fun and feels good. Breath mindset is the method I use to bring balance into my life.

If you are interested in having some accountability as you begin a journey into Breath Mindset, reach out. I’m happy to coach you or set you up with our online community.

Breathe Well.

Originally published at http://heart-lightstudios.com on February 22, 2022.