You’ve probably heard that controlling your breathing, and practicing mindfulness are great ways to beat stress. But what does that really mean? How does a mindful breath help you psychologically and biologically?

A Simple Breathing Technique

The Breath Project, a wonderful collaboration between a group of doctors, artists, and mindfulness experts has a very short, visually beautiful hand-drawn animation, explaining all of this and more. There’s also a wonderful 2-minute guided mindful breath exercise that you can use anytime. Watching their video, I found it so reassuring to learn that even 1 mindful breath creates enough mental pause to impact our actions.

Check out their video here: http://thebreathproject.org/

Mindfulness, Breathing, and Art Making

I am always looking for new ways to practice mindfulness, reduce stress, and be more creative. Luckily, these practices go hand in hand. Try some of the following exercises to engage your imagination, get centered, and get creative.

• Try some of these free meditations and visualizations.
• Practice mindful mandala drawing or mindful photography.
• Calm Your Anxiety with Guided Visualization
• 5 Breathing Exercises to Relieve Stress
• Try these simple art techniques and practice mindfulness
• Use some of these 5 minute art exercises while focusing on the sounds, colors, and what you physically feel in your body while you make art.
• Natural Anxiety Relief: Make Art From Nature

How do you incorporate mindfulness into your life in large and small ways? Tell us about it in the comments.