How are you going with your work-life balance? Are you running off your to-do list? Do you take time for yourself?

We can burn out in many ways. One of the biggest ways is stress. 

Stress affects our ability to think clearly and complete tasks. It clogs up our digestive system. How can we effectively digest and use the food we consume when we are in fight or flight response. We cannot. And stress generally reduces the quality of our lives. 

Here’s one simple thing you can do this week to combat stress. Breathe. Breathe in a way that you are instructing our body to move from fight or flight mode to rest and relax mode.

Many of us know that breath work is very helpful, but do we take time to breathe in a way that allows us to release, relax and let go? Maybe not.

Practice this in your car, standing in a line, taking a walk, listening to someone else talk. Incorporate it into your life. Even put alarms are your phone to remind you: Am I breathing?

Simply breathe in through your nose and out of your nose with the out breath longer than the in breath.

It’s that simple. 

And here’s another idea: Before you start breathing like this, check in with yourself. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 feeling zero stress and 10 feeling like you’re going to burst a blood vessel, where am I?

Then as you go about tasks where you can focus on your breath work, breathe.

Focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your nose with the out breath longer than the in breath for 2 to 10 minutes.  Take the time you need to relax and let go.  

Then check in with the scale again. What's different now? How are you feeling?

Pause, breathe and notice what you are learning about yourself.

Repeat every day several times a day as practice makes permanent.

Noticing what's falling away, how you're responding to life and how you actually feel.