Breathing awareness and postural alignment is what you would expect to cover in a yoga class. Interacting with the worldwide web though, has a tendency to pull you forward, into a land that's fast moving and completely stimulating. Often, your body's left behind waiting for your return.
As a yoga instructor who loves web travel, I find that the same techniques I use to reclaim my heart-brain connection on the mat work well at my desk. The next time you feel as though there's a spinning hourglass inside your head that doesn't stop, try taking these steps and see how you feel:
1. Control the stimulants. Turn off the sound and blinking lights. If necessary, close the laptop cover or throw your jacket over the screen (like covering a birdcage).
2. Get back into your body.
- Place both feet flat on the floor, bring your shoulders over your hips and let your arms hang loose at your sides.
- Turn your palms to face your desk, then turn them out to the sides. This should eliminate the forward curl of your shoulders.
- Lift your head up and back (slowly and gently) so that the opening of your ears are in line with your shoulders.
- Gently lift the front of your body, from that spot just two inches below your belly button and up to your sternum all through the crown of your head.
- Then place your hands on your lap with your palms facing the ceiling and relax your shoulders.
- Take a deep breath.
3. Breathe through your nose. When we breathe through our nostrils, nitric oxide in our sinus cavities is taken into our lungs which helps with the absorption of more oxygen, lowers blood pressure and calms your nervous system.
4. Lengthen your breaths. You should be feeling a bit more relaxed already simply by sitting up straight and deliberately breathing through your nose. Now start to increase the duration of your inhalations and exhalations, just a little each time.
5. Add the following as you breathe:
- Think of something that makes you happy. It can be the presence of someone you love, the memory of a beautiful trip, hearing a musical instrument, the taste of warm chocolate coating your tongue. Anything. Hold that thought as you inhale and let it surge throughout your entire being.
- Next, think of something that makes you feel calm and at peace, like settling into a bed draped with clean, smooth sheets or slipping into a bath with water at the perfect temperature for you. Whatever it is that makes you go "Ahhhhhh." Hold that thought as you exhale and let it spread all over you.
That's it. Practice it several times each day until Joy and Peace become the direct result of breathing in and breathing out. So what if it takes a lifetime? You'll be breathing anyway, right?
Photo: Bill A
