We are getting to that point in the semester where everything is piling up and its a constant grind from the time we open our eyes in the morning to the time we close them at night, or at least that’s how I am feeling. With life being so busy and full of stress and deadlines, I find myself overwhelmed and trying to find the smallest pocket in my busy day to practice mindfulness.

I stumbled across a passage in this new book I am reading called Peace is Every Step by Tich Nhat Hanh. I was able to find time in my day to sit in the sun with my coffee and read a bit of the book, and the passage that stood out to me was called Thinking Less. The gist of the passage is about how we think too much, “it is as if, in our head, each of us has a cassette tape that is always running, day and night. We think of this and we think of that, and it’s difficult to stop. With a cassette tape, we can just press the stop button. But with our thinking, we do not have any button.” This summarized how I have been feeling in this stressful time of the semester. My mind is constantly thinking about how I can finish all these assignments so that I can move onto the next and it becomes exhausting. The book suggests a method of conscious breathing that I tried out and it really helped. 

Photo by Ashley Hall is licensed under CC BY 4.0

“When we breathe in and out, we stop thinking, because saying “in” and “out” is not thinking- “in” and “out” are only words to help us concentrate on our breathing. If we keep breathing in and out this way for a few minutes, we become quite refreshed. We recover ourselves, and we can encounter the beautiful things around us in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here. If we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.” 

 I tried this conscious breathing method all week doing it a couple times a day when I felt overwhelmed and stressed. It allowed me to take a moment for myself, and just pause the hectic day and refresh myself. The first couple of times I tried it, I had to really focus on saying “in” and “out” and block out other thoughts that came into my mind. But as I did it more and more, it became easier and it was amazing how doing this simple exercise helped my thoughts just pause for a moment. This will definitely be added into my mindfulness toolbox, and I highly suggest my readers try it out!!!