A guided breathing and mindfulness practice that teaches diaphragmatic breathing to calm your nervous system, then reframes mundane chores as chances to notice small pleasures. The speaker, a single mother who rebuilt her life after 2015, shows how pairing breath with gratitude for sunlight, scents, and wind can fuel joy in ordinary moments.
Chapters
Hello, my beautiful, lovely, gorgeous people. First, we're going to take a big deep breath in and a big deep breath out. Do that 3 more times. Big breath in. And a big breath out. Again, in. And releasing all that tension and— ah, big sigh out. One more time, super deep breath in. And super big exhale, everything out. Our, our breath is actually an elixir of healing. If you ever get caught in a panic, breathe. It seems like the easiest thing to do, but everyone forgets. And we breathe up in our shallow— up the top here, and we're getting no oxygen down into our stomach. So we should be breathing like where a baby breathes. If you watch a newborn baby, they're breathing quickly in and out of their stomach. They haven't learned to hold it up in their chest yet. So when you're feeling overwhelmed, if you can remember to just breathe. There's science reasons why it works, something to do with the parasympathetic nerve. But there is— just trust it, it's science. Breathing will lower your heart rate. Breathing can lower anxiety. Breathing can lower your depression. Getting that oxygen into our body and the peace and the calm that breathing allows is the fastest way to bring you back to yourself. And that is our goal. We need to come back internally, internally, because external sources aren't going to fix anything ever. Just end of. We, we need to use it to feel that fuel our internal soul. For example, Externals, for an example, I suppose. I mean by externals something that can make you laugh is going to fuel your internal soul. That feeling of winter sunshine on your face, it— you can feel it fueling your soul. A hug from a loved one, the joy of that embrace and the comfort that can fuel your soul as well. A smile from a stranger can fuel your soul. This is what is going to change your life. It seems simple and small, but it's how I used these small tricks. to basically rebuild my internal world after everything came crashing down. And by crashing, I mean a big crash— Wall Street crash of 2015. But by turning things that might feel mundane— I'm going to give you my example. Walking. I'm a single mum, so I'm always putting the bins out myself, and it can sometimes feel like a drag. Like, oh no, the bins again. Why do I have to do the bins all the time myself, myself? So now a little trick I use is where I catch myself. Number one, Be grateful that you even have bins to put out is my number one thing to, to reframe. Be grateful for that I even have the bins to put out. So whatever chore it is, might be your job, might be the lawn, who knows, whatever your mundanity that you're— that just irritates you is, reframe it into a gratitude. And then I even like to try and find like a cherry on top, to be grateful that I have bins to put out. But then I'll look and see like the sun shining through the palm trees, or smell the beautiful scent on my hedge. Occasionally it has these amazing white flowers that smell a bit like jasmine. They're beautiful. So be grateful that you even have the tasks that you're doing to be able to do. And then, then my cherry on top is to find something that just is absolutely glorious, as minute as it might be. Sunshine for me is a lot. I, I like— I actually did read somewhere recently that the sun at— oh, there's science, but I can't remember it off the top of my head. It's irrelevant. The sun has been proven to be good for you, basically. It is actually sending us that energy which supports a solar system. The sun energy supports our entire solar system. So that energy, whenever you can, just enjoy watching it dance through the trees. Or I love it on my face in winter where I live. It's too hot in summer to have it directly on your face, but just to sit there and bathe in that beautiful warm sunshine. It's just, it feels amazing. Or the scent, or even to watch the trees blow in the wind, or just find your thing. So the cherry on the top. So firstly, we need to feel gratitude that we get to clean the toilet again, that we have a toilet to clean. Then notice something beautiful That if you weren't doing that right now, you wouldn't see. For me, it's a lot of nature things because there's something that feeds the soul. Anyway, let's go back into our breath again just because I want to. I've got a bit worked up there. I want to leave you with a nice. Calm entrance back into the world. So let's take a big deep breath in, and I want you to inhale as you're breathing in the remembrance of a happy time. And I want you to feel the happiness and the joy in your heart as you inhale. And now exhale while keeping that feeling of happiness. And moving me into more contentment. Now I want you to breathe in more joy and happiness. Think of a time when you felt lots of joy. And now exhale, feeling the calm and the content and peace. Inhale one more happy thought, happy feeling. Amazing feeling into your heart. And now exhale out and feel completely at peace and at ease and content, ready to go back into your day. I love you, I love you, I love you.
