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Breathing is the primary language of your subconscious mind.  This simple breathing exercise takes less than three minutes to do and is well worth the effort because it promotes deep relaxation.

Practiced daily, slow deep breathing can change your life for the better in many ways.   After just 3 minutes (or ten slow, deep, mindful breaths) you will achieve a deeply relaxed state, mentally and physically  where you can more easily focus, free yourself of anger, fear, stress, symptoms of anxiety and even minimize physical pain (when used in conjunction with imagery techniques).

Symptoms experienced during an anxiety or panic attack are usually a natural, harmless part of your body’s flight-or-fight reaction.  The symptoms are a result of the hormone, adrenaline, which is released when your subconscious mind perceives a threat.  Adrenaline is metabolized in less then 3 minutes. Taking 10 diaphragmatic breaths takes less than 3 minutes to do.  So if you slow your breathing way down and counter your catastrophic thinking with coping statements you will feel relaxed and in control within 3 minutes.

Here’s How to Do It:

Make yourself as physically comfortable as possible either sitting or reclining with your spine straight and your arms and legs uncrossed.  Allow your eyes to gently close.

Inhalation: As you take your first breath, say silently, to yourself the number “One”.  Breathe in as deeply as is comfortable for you. Slowly inhaling through your nostrils, filling your lungs and expanding your abdomen.  Along with the fresh air you are breathing, imagine you’re inhaling positive energy and fresh thoughts and ideas.

Exhalation: Breathe out slowly and fully through your mouth. Imagine you’re exhaling negative thoughts, ideas and energy.  Allow all of the air to fully flow out of you.  Before you begin the next inhalation say, silently to yourself,  “Relax”.

Repeat the above as you count each of the 10 breaths. You may wish to imagine that each inhalation is slowly filling a brightly colored balloon in your belly, or that you are inhaling positive thoughts and energy and exhaling the negative.  Breathe rhythmically… slowly… and fully.  After you exhale the 10th breath slowly open your eyes and notice how relaxed you are.

If you change your breathing rate you will change your emotional state.  You will relax!

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This particular meditation is called The Great Tree Meditation. It is a good exercise for anyone whether they are a beginner or more advanced. During the course of this meditative exercise you will be releasing negative emotions and drawing in positive, creative energy so if you find yourself feeling emotional do not worry, that is certainly not uncommon.

As with any meditation make sure that you are somewhere peaceful where you won’t be disturbed for the duration of the exercise. If you are disturbed or distracted then you can either start again or continue from where you left off if you feel able to slip back into it.

Lets begin.

The classic meditation position.

• To begin get yourself in a comfortable position. While the lotus is the “classic” position for meditation, if this is uncomfortable for you then you can sit with your legs stretched out or site on a chair, or even lie down on a bed or sofa. The important thing is that you are comfortable and your back is straight, allowing for proper breathwork.

• Close your eyes and focus on your breathing, allowing your muscles to relax and release any tension they may hold. Breathe deeply through your stomach so that it fully expands on inhalation and contracts to its normal size on exhalation.

• Experience the sensations that breathing brings. The coldness of the air as you inhale, and the warmth as you exhale. The air hitting the roof of your throat as it travels into your lungs.

• When you feel ready begin to focus on the points where your body is in contact with whatever is underneath it, be it floor, sofa, bed, etc. Imagine now that these points are your roots. Allow your roots to burrow deep, deep into the earth core – the heart of nature itself. You are part of nature. You are nature.

• As you exhale you are pushing out any blocked emotions and negativity you may hold, passing to earth so that it can heal you. And when you inhale you are breathing in a pure white light up through your roots that provides you with positive, healing energy.

• When you are ready begin to focus on the crown of your head. It is the head that houses the brain, and the brain which houses the mind, and the mind that houses your powers of creativity. Just as your roots burrowed down deep into the earth, now visualize branches full of lush green leaves sprouting from your head up high into the sky. The golden sun is shinning upon you.

• Now inhalation brings with it a new creative fire, new ideas and passion reinvigorated all passed down from the sun. As you exhale you are releasing any creative blocks that your mind has been holding up into the sky, letting them float away.

• You are now the Great Tree with deep roots to the earth and strong branches with beautiful leaves touching the sky. When you breathe in now you are enjoying the full benefits of being the Spirit Tree. You receive the creative energy from the sun and the emotional healing energy from the earth. And when you breathe out you are pushing away the negativity and mental blocks that stop you from being the divine self.

Continue to enjoy this meditation for as long as you desire.

There are actually hundreds of different forms of tai chi but the most popular ones are Chen, Yang, Wu, Sun and Wu-Hao and Fa styles. While most tai chi is slow paced there are variants that are much faster paced although these are typically only taught and practiced by masters of the slower forms.

The best way to learn tai chi is to scout your local area for classes. Almost all martial arts dojos will run a tai chi class, as do many community buildings. Tai chi is one of the most affordable martial arts to learn as there’s no special equipment required, all you need is to pay for entry into the class and that’s it. It’s best to wear loose fitting clothing to allow for full range of motion and circulation. Also tai chi is typically practiced barefoot or wearing flat soled shoes to enhance balance.

There’s no official accreditation system for tai chi teachers, however as I mentioned above, teaching tai chi is hardly a get quick rich scheme and I can’t imagine there are many, if any, teachers out there who don’t have a good knowledge of tai chi and are just looking to make an easy buck. Also because of the respect people have for martial arts, a dojo won’t employ a teacher they don’t have full confidence in.

Much like meditation, tai chi is something that is best done at least once a day. When you enroll in a class it will probably be run only once or twice a week. This leaves the rest of the week for you to practice what you have learned so far. Preferences vary, but many people like to practice tai chi in the morning as it is a gentle exercise that gets the blood flowing, and gives them a reason to wake up early.

Do remember that tai chi is a martial art and was originally used as a form of combat. Please treat it with the respect its tradition deserves, failure to do so could offend the teacher.

You can follow the tai chi exercises in the video below to get a good idea of what tai chi is, and if it feels right to you.

Don’t worry if you don’t have time to do all these eye relaxation exercises everyday but try to do at least one or two so that you see a real long-term benefit.

Peripheral Sunning

Eye relaxation exercises can improve your eyesight.

We all spend too much time in front of a screen of one kind or another. Whether it’s the TV, a computer monitor or a cell phone. This results in poor peripheral vision as we are constantly staring at a fixed point straight ahead. Peripheral sunning can help you undo this damage.

To do this eye relaxation exercise you need to be outdoors on a day where the sun is out. Look into the sky, not directly at the sun (as this causes damage) but just underneath it. Now slowly move your head to the left while keeping your eyes looking just underneath the sun, then move your head to the right slowly. Repeat this motion for a couple of minutes. This allows the sunlight to reach every part of your eyes which improves the strength of your peripheral vision. It also helps improve the circulation of blood around your neck which increases the speed of repair.

Distance Focus

For this eye relaxation exercise you will need a picture or poster on a wall, with ten feet of room to move back from. Alternatively you can use a plant or tree outdoors to focus on. First stand about a foot away from the object and focus on it for 10 seconds. Then take step back a foot and focus on the object again for ten seconds. Repeat this process until you are stood ten feet away. As the name suggests this exercise helps improves your focusing abilities.

Ocular Development

Ocular development helps to improve the strength of muscles which control the vertical and horizontal movement of your eyes. It’s a fancy name for a really simple exercise. To start move your eyes up and down ten times. Once you have completed this then do the same thing, only this time from left to right. If you want to be really thorough you can also go this diagonally from top-left to bottom-right, then from top-right to bottom-left. You can also vary the speed each day you use this exercise. One day you can move your eyes very slowly, and then very quickly the next day. Each speed develops the muscles in a different way.

The ocular development exercise only takes a couple of minutes and you can do it anywhere so it’s a great eye relaxation exercise to do while the commercials are on TV or you’re waiting for something to load on your computer.

Follow The 10-10-10 Rule

This final eye relaxation exercise is very easy to remember and do and will save your eyes from deteriorating due to focusing too much on nearby objects (books, TVs, monitors, etc). The 10-10-10 rule says that when you are focusing on a nearby object, every 10 minutes stop and look at an object 10 feet away for 10 seconds. 10-10-10. Focusing on a object close to you for too long can cause serious long-term damage to the ciliary muscles. By following the 10-10-10 rule you are giving your ciliary muscles a chance to relax and “cool off” for a short period of time before they go back to work looking at the nearby object.

• Every 10 minutes…
• Look at an object 10 feet away…
• For 10 seconds.

Three simple points that can save your eyes a great deal of wear and tear.

The four exercises above are the ones that have had the most success for me personally. There are a lot more eye relaxation exercises that can help to improve your vision naturally but I will save them for another day. So please start to implement these eye exercises into your daily routine and let me know how you’re getting on with them.

Are you seeing an improvement? Please leave a comment and share your experience.

The key to relaxing those tense muscles is to tense them. No, that isn’t a typo or mistake – if you want to relax tense muscles you should tense them as hard as you can. Let me explain. When you tense or flex a muscle you cause it to expand and tighten. That means when you release the tension it will loosen, making it feel nice and relaxed.

You can try it right now by following these simple instructions.

1. Get yourself in a position where the tense, tight muscle can be flexed. Most of the time the best way to do this is to be stood up.

2. Breathe in deeply through your nose and slowly tense the offending muscle until it is as “hard” as you can get it. Hold the muscle right there for a couple of seconds.

3. Now breathe out through your nose and gradually loosen the flexed muscle until it returns to it’s normal state.

4. Repeat this exercise until the muscle feels completely relaxed and free of tension. Typically this takes five repetitions.

That is how to relax tense muscles.

An added bonus of this exercise is that it will also improve the density and flexibility of your muscles. I often relax my muscles in this way in the early afternoon and it keeps me feeling loose and relaxed for the rest of the day.