Episode 52: Stressed About COVID-19? This Could Help..‪.‬ The MOVEMENT Movement

With all the uncertainty and anxiety and confusion, and sometimes sheer panic about what's happening with the COVID-19 Virus, I do not have a solution for you, but I do have something that hopefully will be helpful on today's somewhat somber episode of The MOVEMENT Movement, the podcast that is typically for people who want to know the truth about having a happy, healthy, strong body, feet first. But of course, in this case, what's going on with your feet really has nothing to do with what happens with the virus. Actually, there may be a little something that may be useful. We'll get to that. I'm not offering solutions. I just want to offer something that may be a little respite for your stressful day and somewhat ironically it's about, we'll talk about a movement that's the most fundamental movement that we do and that is breathing, that is in and out, and in and out.
Thing that we do with oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide and all the other things that are in the air on a regular basis now is a time, especially when we're really anxious or panicked, that our breathing tends to suffer. And that can be a vicious cycle. Breathing restrictions can make you more anxious and again, it can roll down the hill until things are really, really bad. So, I am not, again, suggesting that by breathing differently, you're going to prevent the coven virus or protect yourself from it. If you hear people making claims like that, please, I mean, jeez, report them to the police. There's a lot of people who are making claims that are absolutely at the very least irresponsible and certainly not based on anything resembling science or facts or something useful. So please do be careful.
This is just a really simple one. When you're stressed out, you're typically not breathing. I want to help you breathe a little better. Get a few moments in your day where you can relax, and I'll add one other thing that may be helpful. There's a little science behind it as well. So, we'll see. So, let's just start with breathing and I'm going well, it's real easy to put your hand, one hand on your chest and the other hand on your belly button and just leave it there for a second. Just breathe. Don't try and change anything. Don't try and do anything. Just, you know, keep one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly button and take a couple of breaths and see how you feel though. One thing I want you to notice and look for and pay attention to is as you're breathing, which hand moves first, is your chest or is it your belly that's moving first?
And what I want to suggest and recommend that you do is make sure that it's your belly that's moving first. This is not rocket science. Many of you who, if you've ever done yoga or Tai Chi or anything, we know about the idea of belly breathing. But just pay attention right now. And if your belly isn't moving first, then relax. Take a breath into your belly and let it be the thing that initiates this breathing motion. Now we're not leaving out the chest, we're just starting with the belly. If actually if your chest hand doesn't move, that's kind of okay, but if you really want to get a good full breath, start with the belly and when that seems to be full, keep breathing in the chest is going to move after that and then just relax and let it out. Don't worry about whether your chest hand or belly hand moves first.
Just relax and let that breath just go and try it again. Just breathing in the belly moves first and the chest finishes and then just let go. If you want to add a sigh, a sigh sometimes, that's really necessary at times like this against a breath in belly moves first and then the chest and let it go. Now if your belly isn't moving first, that means you're tightening up all around your core and just shake it out. Just, you know, give your head a roll. Just move your shoulders, do a little dance in your chair. Stand up and just move everything just to let your whole body just loosen up for a little bit. A