Our day starts by standing outside each morning for ten minutes—bending, stretching, and twisting while practicing deep breathing, which is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. This is not only a beneficial way to begin the day, but when we find ourselves a bit stressed during the day, we simply head outside for an additional ten minutes of stretching & breathing or taking a brisk walk through the trees to calm the mind.

 

The act of breathing deeply sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The deleterious effects of stress on the body are well understood, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax and engage in physical activity.

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Exercise is especially important to calm the mind and help the body in quarantine. The benefits of yoga shouldn’t be overlooked. We are attempting to integrate yoga into our daily routine, but with little success. We found a few great thirty-minute Netflix workouts that are encouraging, but a thirty-day commitment critical to forming the habit is still elusive. The good news is that for about 5-10 minutes most mornings we are trying a few traditional yoga poses—Cat-Cow Breath • Simple Cross-Legged Position • Humble Warrior • Camel • Reclined Cobbler. Wish us luck… and, you too!