Reena Vokoun, founder of PassionFit, shares three mental health practices: diaphragmatic breathing to lower heart rate and blood pressure, positive visualization to reduce stress, and staying present-focused through gratitude to avoid rumination on past or future worries.
Reena, you are a great friend of the show and you own PassionFit and you offer so many services. For those who aren't familiar, can you catch everybody up?
Yes, so PassionFit is a health and wellness lifestyle company here in San Diego and the focus is really on holistic health and wellness. The mission of the company is to empower women to flourish personally and professionally through wellness and we offer coaching, livestream fitness and yoga and dance classes, classes. I do a lot of speaking engagements for companies and different organizations. I have a book that came out in 2021, a new one I'm working on that's hopefully coming out later this year. And so yeah, lots and lots of products and services and content to really help people be at their best.
Well, the mind is such a powerful tool, and we really will travel in the direction that our mind is headed. So today you want to help us all stay focused on a positive mindset, and you have some easy tips we can all work into our daily routines.
Exactly. You know, it's been a tough couple of years this decade, right, as entered 2020 with a pandemic, with climate change, with an uncertain job market, a looming recession in our economy, and it's led to a lot of stress and anxiety for many people. So it's important for us to think about how we can weather those storms and be resilient. So the first mental health and mindset practice I wanna talk about is diaphragmatic breathing. This is a form of breathing that really gets deep into your belly. Oftentimes when we're nervous, we breathe from the chest, which creates shallow breaths, and that can cause us to sometimes hyperventilate. But when we go deep into the diaphragm, belly, it really allows oxygen to flow through the body. It really helps to really calm our mind and keep us in a more centered way. And so what we're gonna do, I'm gonna demo this with you. You can just place your hands on your belly and you're just gonna start by inhaling through your nose as you expand your diaphragm outwards. You can literally feel your belly in your hands. And then on the exhale through your nose or mouth, you're gonna pull that belly back in and contract your abdomen. And you just continue to take those slow, deep, slow, diaphragmatic breaths, and do you feel that you're already kind of— your blood pressure might be lowering, your heart rate's getting lower, and if you can just do that throughout your day whenever you're feeling anxious, it's a great tool to have to protect your mental health.
I know even just the act of thinking about how you're breathing is enough to calm you down and make you pause for a second. Exactly. And get re-centered.
Yeah, it's so simple and it's something that we can do anytime and take with us wherever we are.
Alright, what else do you have for us?
So positive visualization is another wonderful form of mindfulness and a great mindset practice, and there's a few different ways to do it. One, you could focus on positive imagery. That could be your loved ones. Sometimes when we're feeling stressed and anxious, just thinking about our kids or our significant other, maybe our mom or dad, or even our dog if we have a pet, can really allow us to stop feeling so stressed and anxious, and it can calm us down and bring us joy just to think about the people that we love. Another form is visualization of maybe a favorite destination spot for vacations, right? Thinking of yourself on a beach somewhere exotic, feeling the nice ocean breeze on your face, the sun shining, the smell of the ocean air can also put you at ease and mentally take you back to a place where maybe you did feel happiness and joy and peace and calmness.
Okay, I think we have time for one more if you've got one for us.
Yes, and so the last one, which sometimes can be easier said than done, is to stay present-focused. Oftentimes we have regrets from the past of missed opportunities or how a certain situation went, or we end up worrying about what's going to happen in the future. But one of the principles of yoga and meditation is to stay present-focused. If we can be grateful in the present moment, really be in the here and now, be present with our loved ones or any activity that we're doing, it allows us to not worry about what happened in the past or what's going to happen in the future, and we can really find peace and engagement and enjoyment in that present moment and then hopefully have hope for what's to come in the future and heal let go and make peace with the past.
Okay, Reena, thank you so much. We always love having you in studio. Where can people stay in touch with you?
Yes, you can go to passionfit.com to learn more about all of our products, services, and content, and follow us on social media @passionfitllc.
Awesome, thank you.
Thank you, Ashley.
