Happy New Year!
I hope your holidays and year end brought joy, light and some rest, even in this season of cold and darkness. As the new year begins there can be a sense of rush - to get going on your year’s to dos, to have a word of the year picked out, or to have new goals to achieve. If that is where you’re genuinely at and feeling energized and ready, then go get ‘em! But if that’s not where you’re at, like me, then I hope you can use this month to pause, move slowly and be present in the doorway of the new year - a space to look back and ahead without really moving anywhere yet.
I wrote about this in a newsletter last year which includes a great podcast episode about January being an in-between time. It makes perfect sense for why the month is named after the Roman god, Janus who represents beginnings and endings, doorways, and duality. He has 2 faces, 1 looking forward and 1 looking back, inviting us to take the time to reflect back and look ahead, while also to simply pause in the here and now. Take a breath, listen inward and let yourself settle before you move into the next thing (or year).
Amidst this in between time, I am also in a season of transition, and mixed with all the other current events in the world, my anxiety is a bit heightened... These 2 podcasts have been particularly grounding and helpful:
Additionally, I’m continuing to work through my postpartum course, Back in Your Body. It’s amazing what 4-7 minutes of practice can do! How are you grounding and connecting with yourself in the doorway of this new year? What small and simple tools can you use as strategies during hard times?
Here’s to a new year, a new month, a new day and maybe some new ways of thinking! Keep breathing and connecting to your authentic self; I'll be doing the same.
This month's feature:
Breathe better in this new year by discovering your body's superpower! Going back to basics, resetting and realigning in order to forge a clearer, calmer path ahead. In this course you’ll learn anatomy, types and adjustments of breath, all building on the fundamentals to bring more ease to everything we do.
Did you know??
Breathing is the human body's most repeated function, taking 20,000 breaths each day!
This simple, yet vital function influences everything our bodies experience from the nervous system and stress responses, to gut health and digestion.
A breath's inhale slightly increases the heart rate, upregulating the body, while the exhale decreases the heart rate, giving the body down regulation or a sense of calm.
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Have you already done the Breath Basics course? You're a rockstar!! Stay tuned next month for more breathing content with the newest EMW course, The Breathing Pelvis.
Why is breathing better important?
Yes, our breath is primarily involuntary, so why should we put focus to it? Great question! Our breath brings ripple effects throughout the body and when we effect our breath, we gain the ability to effect those other systems in our body:
- influencing the heart rate, which translates to the nervous system and recovery
- impacting nutritional motility, which translates to gut health and energy efficiency and longevity
- adjusting posture and how we carry our bodies, which translates to muscular functionality
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JUST FOR YOU:
A few Breathing and Yoga Therapy Resources!
Do you think about where you breathe? Or how you breathe? Did you know that the breath influences how the body feels, recovers and sleeps? So, understanding where and how you breathe can go a long way!
click the image above to view the full resource!
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Breathe & Move Better
Free Video Class!
Originally recorded as a Lunch and Learn, this video uses anatomy visualizations, yoga therapy techniques and light stretches to introduce how our breath works and what we can do to influence it.
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Find more free videos about breathing, movement and managing stress in the Yoga Therapy Showcase!