Weekend Picks: Hack Your Breath, Escape to Philadelphia, & Move
Three ways to make your life better, right now.
4/8 breathing, a nervous system hack.
Even on the best of days, a never-ending barrage of notifications and updates will throw your brain into a state of hypervigilance that makes it hard to focus, digest, and fall asleep—or stay asleep. You’re stuck in your sympathetic (“fight or flight”) nervous system. You can quickly bring yourself into the parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) nervous system by doubling the length of your exhaled breaths, thus increasing the ratio of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.
Lie on your back in a comfortable position. Place your tongue lightly on the roof of your mouth, just behind your teeth.
Inhale through your nose to the count of four.
Pause, open your mouth, and exhale as if fogging a mirror, to the count of eight. Your job is to spend your breath slowly so that the exhale is comfortable. If you feel any breath hunger on the exhale, simply return to the inhale and count a bit faster on the next round.
Repeat the cycle ten times—if you can stay awake.
(Warning: don’t try this exercise before or during driving.)
Pure escapism.
It’s been a week. I know you’re a very serious person, but maybe give yourself half an hour of pure-hearted joy. I recommend Abbott Elementary, Philly native Quinta Brunson’s Emmy Award-winning mockumentary about a fictional West Philadelphia public elementary school. Maybe my judgment is clouded by hometown pride, but I can’t think of a quicker fix for restoring my faith in humanity, if only for 30 minutes.
Move, but in a thinky way.
Take a movement class that demands your full attention. A class that meets you at your own fitness level, whatever that is, and challenges you to move in all body planes. A class that will help you reconnect your brain and body. Use resistance, bodyweight or otherwise, to grow and protect your skeletal muscle. Hey—that sounds like class I’m offering this Sunday, November 17, at 2 pm ET for just $5 on Zoom.
You can sign up here to take it through Cleaver or just Venmo $5 to Cleavermagazine (but if you do that, let me know your email address so I can send you the link.)
Five bucks. It doesn’t get easier than that. Do it for yourself. Practice resistance.