On Saturday we are going to be adding deep breathing exercises to the previous two activities (which we continue to do).
For three minutes twice a day (in the morning and in the evening), we will stand alone outside, look at the sky or trees and breathe in very deeply and slowly.
Try to not think or argue with anybody in your head but simply feel.
At the end of the day, if you realize that you didn’t manage to do the activity, ask yourself why and try to write down your response. Usually, the answers are, “I forgot / I didn’t have time / it felt silly.” Or, self-effacing personality, self-sacrificing personality, and a child of very critical parents. Something little like this can give a lot of insight.
Clarissa's Blog 
When did you decide to become a “self-help guru”?
This is so disappointing, you going in a direction like this ….
Just stick to your usual insightful posts and cancel this latest “series” of installments ASAP.
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Meditation is not for everyone but this is the mildest, easiest version.
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This one I found very hard. I ended up going inside after a minute — I had too much to do!
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How about trying during the day when you are on your way somewhere or are leaving work? Leaving the lunch place is also a good time to try.
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I’ll try that, thanks! I wonder what this says about me though — that I always feel a compulsion to do more work? 🙂
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This one is the first I found really easy. I’m hiking this weekend, and ‘looking at the landscape, breathing deep and just experiencing existence’ has been at least half my day. From this, I’m reminded that hiking is a weight-bearing part of my psychological support structure
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You want some psychological health challenge tips?:
I do deep-breathing exercises every three days: when I climb aboard either the forward seated station of my ROM360 heavy-duty exercise machine (which at its forward station is a combination full range-of-motion rower when I pull the resistant force toward me while leaning all the way back, and then the machine automatically switches gears to become a full range-of motion seated bench press when I push the reversed resistance forward away from my body until my stomach is flat against my legs. On the next third day at the rear station, I manage to balance myself standing vertically on its tiny bicycle foot pedals that move through a full 36″ stride for a stepper exercise that brings my straight leg all the way to the floor, and my other knee all the way up to my chin. Resistance to all this motion is provided by an 80-pound fly-wheel that automatically increases as I increase my effort, so the machine keeps up with me.
The combination of intensive forward and rear-station exercises gives me a fantastic aerobic cardiac workout, keeps my muscles sensitive to insulin, provides weight-bearing exercise that maintains my bone density, forces my core hip/waist muscles to work hard to maintain my balance while standing upright, keeps my elderly body fully supple without the need for additional stretching exercises, and keeps my skinny muscles nicely toned even as it does wonders for my psychological heath.
I paid a small fortune for this exercise machine 15 years ago, but it’s the one machine that I’ve stuck with all the years, used for maybe the 4,000th time an hour ago, and intend to keep using it several days a week for the rest of my life as long as I’m physically able.
So in my own way, Clarissa, I’ve been following your deep-breathing plan for years. 🙂
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