How many times have people told you to relax? Calm down a bit. Breathe! Take some deep yoga breaths!
“Yoga Breaths? Hah! That’s a joke,” you always reply. If you are like most parents of young kids, you are just thriving moving from point A to B to C juggling responsibilities.
You are so much busy with your child and your work assignments and other daily routines right now that you have given up on meditation altogether. You are barely breathing between chores and you dream about sitting down for meditation and breathing in and breathing out. But you have a five-year plan for that: When my kids are old enough, I will get to that.
Sounds familiar?
Don’t you hate this sometimes, though? There should be something a mom can do to relax in between chores. But how? With more than two kids, there is always someone needing something.
Now let’s get to basics:
Why does one practice yoga breathing?
To clear out thoughts. More importantly to relax and reduce stress.
According to an article on HuffPost by Betsy Polatin (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/betsy-polatin/breath-in-motionwhy-exhal_b_4769819.html)
Exhalation is the most important part of breathing which helps clean out all the carbon-dioxide for the body to inhale enough oxygen.
When we are in stress, our breathing is shallow. We are usually in a state of overwhelm or some rush. We never inhale or exhale to our max point.
So why is this information going to help you?
As a mom of young kids, inevitably we are stressed out. But also we are looking for solutions. Solutions to calm ourselves so we can deal with our children calmly.
I have recently realized a perfect solution for this. BUBBLE TIME!!!
If you are a mom of young kids, you have on hand bottles of soap water with wands to make bubbles. We all love to watch our children run around behind the bubbles we blow and burst them.
I hope you see where I am going with this.
BUBBLE TIME AS BREATHING AND MINDFULNESS EXERCISE WHILE PLAYING WITH CHILDREN
Even though this is playtime, here is a simple system to follow:
- Give your kids a soap water bottle with wand if they are old enough and want to do it “myself”
- Take a bottle for yourself with a wand
- Take a deep breath in and exhale through the wand slowly (if you exhale slowly, the number of bubbles that come out of the wand increases, less bursting and more fun for kids)
- Look carefully at the beautiful smiles of your children as they start jumping and cracking the bubbles out
- Point at a bubble and look carefully at all the rainbow colors it is reflecting.
- Watch a bubble fly far far away in the air and possibly burst.
- Be in the moment for each step with your children but still breathing and being mindful
- Experience the smile on your face. Feel relaxed
- Repeat Steps 2-8 for as long as you or your kids want to play
You will notice incredible relaxation happen. You will see how happy you feel. You have just cleared your lungs out of all carbon dioxide and helped to inhale enough oxygen. Thus giving your nervous system a chance to relax.
All this while playing with your kids. You didn’t have to take any extra time of your routine at all.
And you can do this every time your kids are playing outside. Even if they want to play with something else, which kid does not like to be surrounded by bubbles. Get ready for pure play and relaxation!
Sneha J writes at http://kaizenandtheartofmotherhood.com/ where she helps mothers find the ever eluding work life balance through overcoming stress, managing guilt and through self-empowerment.