Breathe for Brain Fitness and Improve All Your Travels
Breathing is necessary and we all know how to do it. But Breathing for Brain Fitness is a whole other animal and one you and your family can easily learn.
Let me explain.
Our brains are greedy. They steal 20% of every breath we take. But it’s never enough. We would all benefit from 25 extra deep breaths daily to improve the oxygenation and circulation to our brain but there never seems to be sufficient time in a day to do it all, right? And who can be bothered to remember to breathe in a special way in our hectic lives?
YOU can! Travel is a perfect time to develop good breathing habits. We are already more relaxed and open to new experiences.
Improve memory as you relax and increase your visual vocabulary and ability. This comes in handy for those endless “Where’s Waldo” games that require focus and good visual skills including family, team and individual sports. It also takes the testosterone and hormonal level down a good few notches for those who travel with teens and young adults. Basically, breathing is necessary but Breathing for Brain fitness is a must for those cabin fever moments during trips where extreme weather can keep everyone inside, climbing the walls.
It’s Easy as 1, 2, 3
Breathing for Brain Fitness requires 3 steps:
- Breathe in through your nose deeply, counting as you do.
- Hold that breath for your original count PLUS ONE.
- Push out your breath fully through lightly clenched teeth with a huge smile on your face using a “shee” sound for your original count PLUS TWO. You should hear your exhale clearly. Practice in private if you are self conscious.
Rinse and repeat twice. Ideally, if you could do these sets of three breaths a few times during the day, you would see the benefits immediately. Try to work up to a 10 second breath as your ultimate goal during your trip. Ten count IN, hold for 11 count, and “shee” out for a full 12 count. About 90 seconds for a set of 3 and you will be fully on the road to Brain Fitness Gold!
Keep a breathing chart or mark down the count level achieved with other journal entries. Go to Breathing for Brain Fitness Tracker to download and begin!
Road trips are a great time to practice Breathing for Brain Fitness and an easy time to track progress.
Check out TMom Mimi Slawoff’s Family Road Trip Survival Guide for some great road trip tips. Just add Breathing for Brain Fitness to her list… ;D
Alli Berman is a Brain Fitness thru Creativity expert, educator, author, therapeutic art product developer and an exhibiting interactive installation artist who has traveled to over 15 countries with her kids (one deaf daughter, one perfectionist son!) for more than 25 years. Join her and explore adventure travel in the US and exotic locations mixed with Brain Fitness fun! This is your online destination for the best creativity and brain fitness tips and tricks, useful fun hands-on ideas and activities, packing lists to develop a more creative kid, educational and fun ideas, helpful advice and more…anything to help you and your kids develop a creative eye in order to explore and enjoy the world in a more creative, colorful and fully integrated way. The end result?…Happier, more relaxed moms AND their single to double digit traveling brood before, during and after an adventure. Join her!