Day 17- Breathe....

I have dedicated a part of each day to just breathing. I sit and simply try to clear my mind and breathe. It sounds really easy, but it really takes practice. Being an asthmatic, I have a hard time with focusing on the breath in daily life, and even more when I work out. I think we all tend to hold onto our breath when we exert ourselves, but have you ever consciously concentrated for a long period of time on your breath?  I mean actually sitting down and doing NOTHING else? I breathe "in to the count of four, out to the count of five" through my nose. Your belly should rise with each inhale and squeeze out each breath by tightening your abdomen. If you try it, let me know how it goes. Post a comment, I love hearing from you.
Anyway, the reason I bring it up today is that I've been doing so well with my asthma, and this part of the year especially used to give me bad allergies, but since I have almost no dairy (I do kinda miss the cheese still though..) and really cut the processed flour, it's a whole lot better, and easier for me to breathe. Yet another benefit to this whole deal! So worth it!
Being in this phase of the challenge is, well, challenging! I have 14 pills to take from my vitamin/appetite pack  and 3 catalyst right before I work out..and taking them used to require a lot of psyc-ing myself out, even though I've never actually had a problem with pills, it makes me a bit nervous, because I never liked doing it. Something unnatural about swallowing something without chewing, I suppose.. Taking the pills was the one thing that made me the most worried about the whole cleanse thing! Turns out to be no big deal really.And this goes with the subject of my post nicely, because I breathe my way through it. Relaxing is pretty much the key to dealing with everything for me now. By trying to learn "relaxing at will" I have been learning to put my energy where I want to, when I want to, and it's really helped me on this journey. I try not to sweat the small stuff, but, I still sweat like a pig when I work out!  But I'm also breathing!! It's a great feeling..AHHHHH.....
LOVE!!
See you tomorrow