Mondays are for mental health

The podcast episode is about the importance of deep breathing for stress and anxiety. The host introduces a breathing exercise called box breathing and guides the listeners through it. The exercise involves inhaling and exhaling for four counts each. The host encourages listeners to continue practicing deep breathing for better mental and emotional health. Hello and welcome to Chico's the podcast for the wife and the wife to be I am your host Christina J Mondays are from mental health Mondays are for mental health We're going to call Mondays mindfulness Mondays. Have you taken a time to breathe today? If not, you've come to the right place. And if you're listening to this on any other day rather than Monday, enjoy Let's prepare for a deep breathing exercise This exercise that we're going to do today is really good for stress and anxiety and the best part is it could be done anywhere quick disclaimer This exercise is going to require you to loosen any clothes that may restrict your breathing If you are in the public eye, please do not take any clothes off You do not have my permission to take any clothes off You do not have my permission to take any clothes off in the public eye But if you're wearing something like a button-up shirt Go ahead and unbutton a couple of buttons and get comfortable as comfortable as you can get if you're in public Now if you're within the confines of your own home, you can loosen up any clothing You can take off anything you would like to take off anything that restricts your breathing I'm gonna get as comfortable as you can. Okay? Now, secondly, I want you to find a comfortable chair Go find your chair And as you find your chair and as you sit in your chair, I'm going to talk to you about the importance of breathing Breathing is something that we often take for granted We do it all day, all the time And usually without ever stopping to think about it You know, we kind of forget to realize that breathing can actually be a tool to help combat stress and anxiety Deep breathing in particular activates our sympathetic nervous system And what this does is it kicks in our fight-or-flight response Right? So in other ways, in other words, it gets our hearts pumping while disrupting our normal breathing patterns And as a result, it puts the mind and the body in a state of relaxation So let's get to the breathing part Today we'll begin with a rather easy breathing exercise and technique called box breathing So you have your chair, the one we mentioned earlier I want you to sit up comfortably in your chair with your feet planted firmly on the floor, hip-width apart Close your eyes and begin to slowly exhale all of the air out of your lungs Gently inhale for four counts through your nose Inhale for four counts through your nose Hold for four counts And exhale for four counts through your mouth Now you're going to wait for four counts and repeat So you'll be sitting up comfortably in your chair with your feet planted firmly on the floor, hip-width apart Your eyes should remain closed Slowly begin exhaling all of the air out of your lungs Gently inhale for four counts through your nose Hold for four counts And exhale for four counts through your mouth Wait for four counts And this is the last time you're going to repeat this one By this moment in time, you should still be sitting up comfortably in your chair with your feet planted firmly on the floor, hip-width apart With your eyes closed Slowly begin exhaling all of the air out of your lungs Gently inhale for four counts through your nose Hold for four counts And exhale for four counts through your mouth Now, if you would like to continue this breathing activity for the remainder of this broadcast, be my guest However, the main important thing is I want you to be able to take this away with you All right, take it away and continue to work at it, continue to practice it Because whatever the day brings you Okay, my sister, I hope your mind is clear and the tension in your body has disappeared Sometimes it takes some time to really master breathing Now, just remember that conscious breathing is very important to our mental and emotional health and well-being Especially someone who contributes to everyone else, as wives, as mothers, as sisters, as friends And as kingdom leaders and citizens, we have to be able to manage our mental health better Thank you to all who listened in today as we conducted our mindfulness activity I look forward to Mental Health Mondays in the future as we continue to prioritize our mental health Until we meet again, be confident, be classy, and stay brilliant Brilliant. This is your host, Christina Jade, and I'm signing out