Relaxation is a practice, one we are not taught to value much in our culture. It's normal to accumulate tension and stress, most of us just also live unnaturally and chronically stressful and over-stimulated lives.

Folding small moments of awareness, relaxation, and softening into your day is one way you can begin to change your baseline level of tension and nervous system state.

20-Second "Mini Break" Breathwork and Body Scan:

Pause and close or soften your eyes.

Inhale a fuller, deeper breath. Exhale long and slow until your lungs are empty. Notice how you feel.

Then as you breathe:

1. Invite your forehead to soften.

2. Invite your jaw to soften.

3. Invite your shoulders to soften.

4. Invite your belly to soften.

Inhale, and exhale long and slow.

Thank yourself for the practice.

The cliff notes version:

- Forehead

- Jaw

- Shoulders

- Belly

Make this practice your own:

- Do some other parts of your body need encouragement to soften too?

- Is there another word better than "soften" for you (loosen, relax, melt, drop)?

How to make it a regular practice?

My time as a Holistic Health Coach was all about helping people implement the changes they wanted to make. Here are some tips:

- Fold it into other things you already do: For example, when you get into your car/on your bike/in the shower/into or out of bed/on your yoga mat/when sitting down to eat.

- Do it anytime you think of it or find yourself wishing for something different (in the middle of eating; anytime social media is making you feel like garbage; whenever you don't feel like answering any more emails; when you go pee).

- Put a post-it note on your desk, laptop, bathroom mirror, microwave, tea kettle, etc.—places where you will see it, and ideally where you are already pausing or have a few moments you can carve whenever you see it there.