It’s no news that the practice of cardiovascular exercises such as jogging or walking are essential to good health due to their many benefits. Along with increasing our heart rate and blood flow, they activate our metabolism and produce hormones our body needs to release and to fight against stress and anxiety, helping us to relax and sleep well.
Did you know that 70% of the toxins inside of our body are removed through the lungs?
Proper breathing is key to physical and mental well-being as it can boost energy and relieve pain.
So, combining jogging with the right breathing technique seems to be a smart choice in maintaining optimal health and keeping your body and mind fit!
My favorite technique?
‘Priming’ (I’ve learnt this from legendary life coach Tony Robbins). He created his own version of an ancient yoga technique called 'Kapalabhati Pranayama breathing'. I actually call it 'breath walking', meditation in action and/or active meditation.
Priming will help you to boost your metabolism, energy and mood, increasing your motivation levels.
Breath walking – how to?
• Inhale four breaths in a row, in a fairly quick fashion, through your nose.
• Immediately exhale four breaths in a row, in the same tempo, through your mouth.
• Repeat the inhaling and exhaling process 30 times without interruption and then breath normally for a little while.
• Repeat step 1-3 above three times. i.e. the whole exercise is 30 x 3 complete breaths.
Priming
To get even more from the exercise, here are a few tips you may want to try:
• Do at least 10 minutes of priming.
• Try these 3 mental exercises:
Feel grateful - in the first 3 minutes, think about 3 things you are truly thankful for in life. This can be something very simple such as the warmth of the sun on your face.
Inner presence - this may sound a bit spiritual but it's actually a crucial practical skill of successful people as it directly influences your effectiveness. For the next 3 minutes, focus your attention on how you feel and your present emotions - think how to maintain good emotions and what you can do to help shift the not so good ones.
Make things happen - the last 3 minutes, focus on 3 things you want to make happen. I tend to use this to broadly plan my day and visualize the 3 most important things I want to accomplish during the day.