EPISODE 69: BREATHE TO ENHANCE WELL-BEING Flourishing Friday (FF)-Welcome to Flourishing Fridays (FF), where every Friday we bring you a Positive Psychology-based life hack that will help you to flourish.  In these episodes we look at real life application of Positive Psychology, while giving you tips and strategies to put Positive Psychology into use in all areas of your life.  Your body breathes on autopilot—so why worry about how to inhale and exhale? Scientific research is showing that mindful breathing, paying attention to your breath and learning how to manipulate it, is one of the most effective ways to lower everyday stress levels and improve your well-being. Despite the inherently automatic nature of breathing, most people can really benefit from taking control of our breathing. There is a very direct relationship between breath rate, mood state, and autonomic nervous system state. Listen in to Emiliya teaches us how we can use breath control to self-regulate.  In this episode she also talks about Heart rate variability as a new way to enhance your well-being. HRV is simply a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system. It works regardless of our desire and regulates, among other things, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. People who have a high HRV may have greater cardiovascular fitness and be more resilient to stress. Overall breathing appears to play an important role in the positive effect of heart rate variability. Paced breathing has been shown to enhance HRV.  Consciously use your breathing patterns to take charge of your health and well-being. You can calm with with your breath or energize with your breath:  Calming Breath: INHALE FOR THREE EXHALE FOR SIX COUNTS  Energizing Breath: INHALE FOR SIX COUNTS EXHALE FOR THREE COUNTS  Increase Heart Rate Variability: SLOW DOWN OVERALL BREATH INHALE FOR SIX COUNTS AND OUT FOR SIX COUNTS  Make Breathing a conscious tool that you can use daily.  For Full show notes & more information on what we have to offer,  visit The Flourishing Center at:  www.theflourishingcenter.com SHOW LINK: