Something to do to make you feel better

SOMETHING EASY YOU CAN DO TO FEEL BETTER

By Clair Yates

If I told you there was an exercise so powerful that within a couple of minutes practice it could lower your heart rate, boost your digestion and improve your sleep and that this same exercise practiced to extreme can have hallucinogenic effects and create out of body experiences, would you know what exercise I was talking about? It’s called breathing!

Breathing for most of us is totally automatic, governed by our autonomic nervous system, it happens all by itself. However, we can override our natural breath and if we know how, we can create an effect within a few minutes of practice. For centuries yogis have used breath control, or pranayama, it’s one of the most powerful tools for modulating our nervous system and yet it continues to be misunderstood and neglected in most health circles. It’s easier than meditation, the benefits are immediate, even a beginner can impact their nervous system dramatically in as little as 10 breaths.

I’ve been teaching breath work for many years as part of my yoga classes but I would encourage everyone, even those who have no interest in yoga to consider working with their breath. Very short breathing practices of 2 minutes a couple of times a day, can make a huge difference to how we feel and to our overall health.

For example, a balanced breathing practice is one you can use anytime you need balance in your life. After a chaotic journey/commute, a stressful work call, a balanced breath practice will calm you down. When you’re feeling the afternoon slump, ready to reach for a coffee a balanced breath practice will lift you up and leave you feeling energized and ready to get on with what needs doing. Like taking a sip of water throughout the day to stay hydrated, brief balancing breathing practices will help steady your nervous system, so you can respond and get things done.

A calming breath practice on the other hand will always downregulate the nervous system, it can make you feel soporific and groggy so this is the technique you want to use right before bed. At night when I’m finishing work, my phones lighting up with notifications and my mind is buzzing, this type of breathing is a fantastic aid to sleep.

Short breathing practices are part of my self-care routine, just like drinking water to stay hydrated, they’re how I look after myself. If you feel you could benefit from learning to harness your breath to help you to feel better, sleep better and get more done, there are plenty on resources online, you could look for a yoga teacher who teaches pranayama or you could look for a breath coach. Breathing practices are easy to learn and the effects are more predictable than meditation or drugs and they are of course much safer. Tune in next week and I will describe an easy balancing breath practice that you can start to use straight away. Take care of yourself, Clair.

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UPDATE FROM HARDEN HOLIDAYS - YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT TRAVEL AGENT By Harden Holidays

With the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) dropping the word ‘indefinite’ from its global no-travel advisory we believe signals the start of a much-needed recovery for the travel industry. The FCO is expected to further soften its advice over the coming weeks to permit travel via air bridges. We hope by the time the magazine goes to print this to be the case for 45 destinations with low or no Covid-19 infections.

In all the uncertainty of the last 3 months one things is certain – everything can change very quickly.

We are really pleased to have been able to re-open our physical premises in Dartford town centre on the 15th June as nothing can replace the face to face interaction when it comes to booking, canceling, amending your travel plans. We found that each client had a different set of circumstances surrounding their booking, health and personal views – the one size fits all approach doesn’t work, our advice is always personal. We have great relationships with all our supplier and these trade relationships have benefited our clients during this crisis.

Airlines are very focused on safety and reassuring customers that it will be safe to fly as soon as the FCO advice has been lifted. Airlines are implementing new health and safety measures with a number of airlines gradually entering restart mode. IATA (International Air Transport Association) has published this picture relating to how the air quality is maintain onboard aircraft. Most modern aircraft are fitted with hospital grade HEPA filters, we hope you find it useful.

There is a lot of speculation about the hike in holiday prices for 2021 – judging by the beach scenes around the UK in the past few weeks there is a definite demand for sun and sea this summer. The consensus seems to be that in the immediate post-lockdown period, people will get some bargains however long term there may be new factors to prompt price hikes. Thanks to the additional flexibility from holiday providers, there has been a higher than usual level of bookings for 2021 as people lift and shift their plans by 12 months. This increase in demand may translate to higher prices during peak travel periods, and overall, we’re seeing that traditional booking patterns will not apply during the coming year. It is difficult to get over the devastation from the last 3 months however we are seeing a steady increase in new enquiries and a great appetite to travel as soon as it safe to do so.

Turkey leads the short haul destinations to introduce a new tourism certification process as the country prepares to reopen to UK tourists. The Safe Tourism Certification scheme is designed to validate the implementation of high levels of health and hygiene measures at airlines, airports and other transport stations, accommodation and food and beverage facilities. The Turkish authorities have already scrapped the requirement for UK visitors to obtain a visa this summer.

River cruising has seen a return in Germany with new health and hygiene policies in place. This is paving the way for the larger cruise liners to follow suit however it is proving a lot more challenging and we are seeing sailing dates being pushed back further towards the end of 2020.

For most up to date information, advice and guidance please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to provide you with industry intel and knowledge. Always talk to a travel professional – as independent travel agents we are here at your service, our advice will always have your best interest at heart, we will always pick up the phone and you will always be able to pop in our store and have a face to face conversation.

Call - 0800 023 8974 E-mail - tim@hardenholidays.co.uk Website: www.hardenholidays.co.uk Visit us at: Unit 1B Henley House, Home Gardens, Dartford, DA1 1AS (Opposite Prospect Place & Costa, next to Subway)