Your hands and breathing exercises to relieve anxiety

Have you ever had a good look at your hands? Noticed the lines and bumps? Perhaps you have smooth hands, or perhaps they are rough with callouses or perhaps have blisters or cuts on them? Our hands have so many nerve endings that connect with the rest of our body. Our hands do some much work, however we may not realise how important our hands are.

Your hands are constantly doing and enabling you to go about your daily tasks and the attention is often external.

Something I regularly ask my students to do is bring their palms to rest on their rib cag to notice their inhale and exhale. Often, like our hands, our attention is on doing and completing daily tasks and attention is outwards.

If you would like to ground yourself and bring your attention inwards, take your palms and place your left palm over your heart and right palm over your belly. Follow your breath. Breathe into your right palm and send your inhale to your left palm. Imagine your breath is a wave and allow it to travel back to your right palm.

I will often do this as part of my yoga practice and meditation and when I wake in the morning and before I sleep.

Placing a weighted blanket over your chest and body can help to relieve anxiety.

…and you thought hands were just hands. 🙂

Have a go and see how you feel. xx

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash