Keeping fit and healthy from head to toe – Shoulder, lungs, arms, and hands
Today this body region is especially susceptible to exercise and looking after it. The highlighted regions today are the shoulders, lungs, arms, and hands.
Exercise your shoulders and arms
to keep them toned and flexible. If you have weights at home train the biceps and shoulder area.
Breathing exercise to get rid of stress and tension
I use an exercise that I call Happy In/Grumpy out and you can do this anywhere! These days breath work has become quite fashionable, but I started implementing this exercise when I was only 5 years old! Nobody explained to me why and how, it just felt good and I kept doing it ever since.
Take 2 really deep breaths to get warmed up. I mean really deep breaths where you hold your breath as long as you can and release all your tension with the exhale. Then on breath 3 imagine that you are in a beautiful area with lots of trees and flowers, maybe at the seaside. Close your eyes, picture this scene, and feel yourself taking the energy from this natural environment. Hold it in and finally slowly release. There your thoughts turn to all kinds of negative experiences you had, or if you find this difficult, imagine a chimney spurting smoke, something along this line. A vision that expels anything negative. Then hold your breath and empty your lungs until you feel all of this mental negativity has drained out of you. You are now ready to inhale again and take more energy from your visionary environment with the next breath. I tend to do 5-10 of these visualized breaths and once you have perfected the technique this breath visualization exercise is a really effective stress-buster.
I use it in situations like after an irritating phone call/email or any other incident that exercises you! Retreat to a safe space and repeat these exercises a few times. This immediately releases any built-up tension. Even better go for a quick walk whilst doing these exercises.
Breathing exercise to energize your body and mind
The following exercise is the polar opposite. It is meant for all those who are overwhelmed and fearful. Instead of focusing on release, we deal with energy in and keeping it in. Again start with 2 warming-up breaths – see above. On breath 3 inhale in short bursts. Visualize you have a closed flower in front of you and with each extra inhale (of the same breath) you open and breathe life into another layer of this flower until it is in full bloom. Hold this image and release gently the air. Repeat a further 8-10 times.
It is best to do this exercise in the morning before getting dressed to pump yourself up for the day. It can also be helpful when you receive bad news, before an interview or whenever you feel overwhelmed and anxious. Feel stronger and life coming into you with each breath. Instead of a flower, you can visualize that you getting stronger or whatever picture helps you.
Why do these breathing exercises work?
Breath is a vital function in our fight-or-flight response. When we are chased by a tiger we don’t want to practice slow, calm breathing. We need shallow – get me away- breathing techniques. But once we are back in safety we need to switch back again to a calmer and more relaxed way of breathing. Most of us don’t get chased by tigers, but we get bombarded by pinging phones and unrealistic expectations. Our brains get rarely an opportunity to switch off – except when we force it by changing the way we breathe. It is a physiological reaction. Here is more about the scientific explanation and benefits of deep breathing methods.
Manicure and beauty treatments for your hands and arms
File your nails and treat yourself to a manicure. Finish by applying lots of moisturizing hand cream and cuticle oils.
More information on this subject will be added in due course
