Chill Pill Calm Breath

Do you need to take a chill pill to calm down, focus, get clarity? Well, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Mind Body Space Podcast. I'm Dr. Juna Bobby MD. I'm a board-certified physician specializing in mind-body medicine. This is the Rx Chill Pill part of the podcast where I guide you through a meditation to elicit your relaxation response. This is a powerful, research-backed physiologic state that is the opposite of your stress response. A regular practice will boost your focus and resilience for peak performance and wellness. Science-backed self-help is one of the key solutions to thrive and stay healthy in our increasingly complex world. The few minutes you put in here will save you a ton of time in the real world. So please support this important message by pressing the share, subscribe, and rate buttons.

Today we're going to do a breath-focused mindfulness exercise. But first, get a pen and paper and let's check in with ourselves. You can hit pause if you have to go get that piece of paper or pen. So how are you feeling right now in general? Just jot something down. Are you feeling calm? Are you feeling nervous? Whatever it may be. What are your emotions? Now write down what your level of focus feels like on a scale of 1 to 5, so 5 being the absolute most focused you've ever felt and 1 being not focused. Does your mind feel clear or distracted? And we'll check in again at the end of the practice to see if anything changes. And that's what's so much fun about scientific self-help, because we can actually check in on ourselves and see what makes a difference and what doesn't. So let's start our breath-focused mindfulness exercise and tap into our top-down processing, the part of our brain that's wiser and what people sometimes call our executive functioning brain, the boss of our brain. We normally breathe 12 to 16 breaths per minute. That's what we call our respiration rate. That's the normal range. When we make the exhale longer than the inhale, we slow down our heart, which in turn tells our brain that we can relax. So we're going to slow down our breath today, but first let's prepare. Find a comfortable, safe place to sit for a few minutes. Now get some tissues and blow your nose if you're congested, because we're going to be breathing in and out through our nose for this exercise. Keep that box of tissues handy if you need it. You can do this lying down as well. So let's just relax and get comfortable, settling in. When you're ready, relax your shoulders on the next exhale. Whenever that is for you. Close your eyes if you're comfortable doing that. If not, then just lower your eyes and gaze softly downwards. Put your hands in your lap if you can. Just relax them. Now breathe in through your nose and breathe out of your nose at your natural pace. Don't try to control your breath in any way. Start to notice the breath going in and out of your nose at its natural pace. Notice the temperature of the air coming in and out of your nose. Now start to notice any sounds, sensations, and any movement in your body that comes with your breath. Now start counting on the inhale. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4. And now we breathe out, counting down, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The trick here is to make the pacing and rhythm of the counting the same for the inhale and the exhale. So let's try it together for 3 times. Inhale: 1, 2, 3, 4. Exhale: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4. Exhale, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4. Exhale, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Now go on at your own pace, inhaling for 4 and exhaling for 8, getting a steady rhythm of counting, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your nose. Whatever your experience is for you in this moment is perfectly fine. Maybe you've noticed your mind wandering, or maybe you even lost count. It's all good. Just continue inhaling for 4 and exhaling for 8. Now wherever you are in the counting, just let it go, let it fade. Just take a few natural breaths. So whatever your experience was, this was an engagement in the present moment with a focus on your breath. This is an exercise for your brain so that you can pay attention and hold your attention on something because you're bringing yourself back to a focus whenever your mind wanders, if your mind wandered. So now let's check in with yourself. How are you feeling? What is your level of focus from 1 to 5? Does anything feel different compared to before you did the exercise? Compare how you feel and your level of focus with what you wrote before you started the exercise. How did things change for you? Now it's time to go on to the rest of your day. It would be great if you went on to something that you need to focus on because you just did a centering exercise for your mind. So use this simple counting breath exercise, breathing in through your nose and out through your nose, Use it anywhere, anytime in your day.

You can do it as little as 1 breath or up to 100 breaths.

It's simple, it's easy, and it's discreet. And you always have it with you because it's your breath. And best of all, it's free.

It's important to thank yourself for taking this time to shift your brain and body into the relaxation response. We all need to counter the wear and tear of stressors in our everyday lives. This not only helps our productivity and focus, but it also benefits all the people we interact with during our day. Because let's face it, the calmer we are, the more positivity we can bring into the world. Did you like this chill pill? Well, then go to mindbodyspace.com and opt in to the newsletter and you'll get special tips from my neuroscience-based planner and course, which was developed from over 10 years of experience teaching high-performance students of all ages. At Juilliard, NYU, Columbia, Achievement First Charter Schools, and many other organizations. As always, I really appreciate you joining me here. And until next time, this is Dr. Juna wishing you and your family wellness.