Stock Up on the Essentials: Find Your Breath (FYB)

To find your breath:

1. Take an intentional breath.
2. Notice, are you breathing into your chest or your belly?
3. Straighten your spine, neck, and head. Upright and relaxed, not rigid or stiff.
4. Drop your shoulders down and back.
5. Relax your face: a. jaw, mouth, and cheeks b. eyes and brow *(see note below)
6. Bring your focus to your breath again (as you were focusing on other things, you may have forgotten your breath). Take an intentional, relax, awakening breath.**(see note below)
7. Notice your arms and your overall posture: alert, relaxed, support, upright, open.

* How do you relax something you don’t know how to relax? First, mildly constrict it and bring energy and attention to it, then intentionally let go of that tensing and constricting, thus, relaxing it.

** Awakening just means a sense of awareness and bigger-more-openness in your posture, which may give you slight sense of increased energy.