Take the challenge, Take a breath.

Do you ever hold your breath? I don't mean under water or when you go through a tunnel to see if you can hold in your breath the whole time, like a game... that's not what I am talking about.  

I mean, do you HOLD your breath?

Do you find yourself throughout the day focusing on something so hard, you notice you weren't breathing, and then take a gasping breath, and move on... has this ever happened to you?

I am fairly certain I am not the only one; or maybe you are like me, and until you brought your awareness to your breath, you had no idea you did this!  I started practicing yoga and meditation among other spiritual practices that bring awareness to the breath, some time ago.  But it wasn't until recently I noticed this 'holding my breath' thing, in unusual circumstances throughout my day.

To back up my reason for even bringing up such a topic, I included Wikipedia's definition on breathing, and the critical nature of such a topic; see below. 

Breathing is the process that moves air in and out of the lungs or oxygen through other breathing organs such as gills.[1] Aerobicorganisms of these types—such as birds, mammals, and reptiles—require oxygen to release energy via respiration, in the form of themetabolism of energy-rich molecules such as glucose. Breathing is only one process that delivers oxygen to where it is needed in the body and removes carbon dioxide. Another important process involves the movement of blood by the circulatory system.[2] Gas exchangeoccurs in the pulmonary alveoli by passive diffusion of gases between the alveolar gas and the blood in lung capillaries. Once these dissolved gases are in the blood, the heart powers their flow around the body (via the circulatory system). The medical term for normal relaxed breathing is eupnea.

I bring this to your attention, because being the health and wellness seekers we are; I want to present a challenge, it's one I have recently taken on, and so I thought it would be fun to share with you and hear if it is helping you or at least bringing you awareness. 

I have committed to consciously stopping in my tracks and BREATHING for one minute, once an hour.

Obviously I am still breathing the other 59 minutes of every hour, haha.  

The point is to bring your awareness to your breath, how you use it or how you don't.

You might bring your awareness to how you are sitting and how does it help the energy flow through your body throughout the day by bringing awareness to your breath.

A little food for thought from yours truly :)  Breathing has been on my mind.  

Let me know if you take the challenge, and if you do, what happens! 

Thanks!

Lindsey