The 4 - 7 - 8 breathing technique was adopted from the yogic practice of pranayama, meaning “regulation of breath" and was created by Dr. Andrew Weil, a world-renowned Harvard trained doctor with a focus on holistic health. The technique involves breathing in for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 7 seconds and then exhaling for 8 seconds.

Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation towards something that you are thankful for. Can it change your life? I think so. There is extensive research that indicates gratitude is highly correlated with well being and life satisfaction. This is because when you focus on positive feelings your brain creates happy emotions which can cancel out feelings of anxiety, worry and comparison.

There is certainly something strange going on in the world right now and there seems to be a paradigm shift happening. With the anxiety and fear based thinking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I couldn't help but find myself deep in thought about how to find the positive, or at least find a lesson to be learned, about what is going on in our world right now.

Self care is any activity that we intentionally do in order to take care of our emotional, physical or mental health. It seems obvious that we should take care of ourselves first before we are fully capable of taking care of others, however in a life where we are pressed to do more and it feels like there are not enough hours in the day - it’s so easy to neglect our basic needs and push the limits. We are not putting our own oxygen masks on first and it results in anxiety and burnout.

Self care is key to a balanced life. Self care is not an indulgence and we shouldn’t feel bad about it. It’s necessary and we should be disciplined about it.