It has been 7 days of Rest and Restore.

This is one of the responses from my friend Jessica that I received after my last blog post about being benched.

” This is great! Nice reminder to everyone. Now, make a suggestion when you say “slow down and take care of you” so many people don’t even know what that means or how to do it so breaking it down with a few little/easy to mix into your day examples will show them even more how practical it can be. Right? Like even saying little things you do that help u to actually “slow down” (that aren’t the result of back pain) but just your normal day to day little things u throw in there to actually “slow down and take care”….!!!”

In so many ways I feel guilty about rest and restore. Something physical needs to happen to actually stop me. This week back spasm actually stopped me.

I have had a minor set back this week. I am striving for optimal health, fitness and feeling great. I want to achieve this in an easy way.  I am tried of pushing so hard to achieve it.  In the past, as a competitive runner, I pushed for years. I have been reading Dr. John Douillard’s author of Mind, Body, Sport work on Nose breathing.

I want to share one thing you  can easily integrate to rest and restore even while exercising.

Breathe in and out through your nose. It is amazing the difference this can create immediately. Breathing through your nose creates a calm and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Breathing through your mouth is an emergency response, flight or fight as though you are being chased by a bear. Mouth breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system which tends to increase your heart rate and adrenaline.

While exercising, I would get confused when to breath in and when to breath out. Here is a tip from my smart husband, “Breath in and blow it up”. For example, while doing a pushup, breath in through your nose and BLOW IT UP out your nose while you are pushing your body up. (Great video idea…coming soon:) Make sense?

I would love to hear from you. How do you slow down and take care of yourself?

Slow down, Rest and Restore. Savor and appreciate.