National Stress Awareness Day + Minority Wellness Month: An Invitation to Breathe

Today is National Stress Awareness Day, as well as Minority Wellness Month. Both are initiatives that seek to focus our attention on reducing and healthfully managing stress, as well as on highlighting the disparities that exist for racial and ethnic minority populations and the additional stress those disparities can cause. See this post and this post for information and resources about supporting, learning, advocating, and connecting with BIPOC leaders, communities, and health initiatives. 

Read on for a “paced/squared” breathing guide that will help you slow down, ground yourself in reality, and help you reflect on your life and its connection to others. Learning how to breathe deeply and with intentionality is a practice that can help all of us. 

Paced/Squared Breathing Practice 

First, picture a square. As you inhale, think about going up the left side of the square for four beats. One. Two. Three. Four. Then, hold your breath at the top as you trace that upper border. One. Two. Three. Four. Then, exhale as you trace down the right side of the square. One. Two. Three. Four. Then, hold your breath again at the bottom as you complete the square, returning to where you began. One. Two. Three. Four. 

By visualizing the square as you breathe, you can bring more focus to your mind, which can help you ground in the present moment and in what is real. You can also use a pen and paper to draw squares if having a physical/visual representation of the square helps you engage your breath in deeper, slower ways. 

Feel free to make this your own. Our hope is that you can use this exercise to engage your breath in deeper, more intentional ways, finding some space to settle, ground, and renew. 

Adapted from Marsha Linehan’s DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets (2015).