So I was babysitting and when I got to the house, the little girl got really upset when she realized her parents were leaving. (This girl is like, three years old.) So her dad picked up his child, who's having a full on temper tantrum, and instead of saying, "calm down" or "it's okay" or anything like that, he says, "deep breaths. Take some deep breaths."

And she did. And pretty soon, she calmed down and had completely forgotten about why she was upset.

Now, obviously, we aren't all three year olds with short term memories (if you are, I'm very impressed with your reading capabilities). But breath does have some very helpful healing components.

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/2013_08_Breathing_1.png

And now for some close ups on this graphic because it's very small.

Meditation is awesome. 10/10 would recommend.

Calm your racing heart, my friends.

I do this all the time right after a stressful moment in driving. Honestly, I do it at stoplights because driving is just a string of stressful moments. POINT BEING: it works.

As a performer, I can personally guarantee that deep breathing is the best cure for stage fright. And getting extra oxygen to your brain is extremely helpful to anything negative going on up in your spaghetti loaf of neurons.

ATTENTION STUDENTS: this works. I do this during tests all the time. It makes sense that oxygen helps with concentration, and we've already seen that it reduces anxiety. Double win.

This is crazy. I've never heard of this before, but it seems pretty legit. I mean, how cool is this?

TL;DR: Deep breathing is good for you!

So I'm very tired and I'm clearly not making a lot of sense, so I'm going to get some sleep #selfcare

Much love <3
Margot