NCTV Episode 1

Below is the first video in a series of bitesize health tip videos which can be found here on my YouTube Channel. I started these at the beginning of UK lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, after closing clinic, to help my clients and the community get through the challenging times ahead. Each video covers a separate topic, relevant to the situation at the time, starting with Breathing and Relaxation below.

Transcript

If you’d prefer to read the content within, rather than watch the video, then feel free to read the transcript, as follows:-

Hello and welcome to the inaugural NCTV, this is bite sized bits to help your health flourish and today we are the day after Boris Johnson has made his statement to the nation addressing the whole Coronavirus issue.

So the country is pretty much in a state of lockdown right now, Storrington itself is perhaps not, there are still cars flying past but maybe at a lesser rate than there were before.

But anyway I wanted to give you something that you can take away to help your health whilst this is all going on. There are certainly some things you can do, even if you can’t go out you can look after your health and it’s important now more than ever that you get yourself in a good state of mind as well as well as the body physically.

So the way to help your mind is to try and forget all the fear mongering that’s going on, stay away from social media such as facebook and even the news to a certain extent. I know you need to know what’s happening but when looking into it too much you get sensationalised news and all the negativity builds up which over time creates a state of anxiety, so we want to try and reduce that. Instead, in creating a more positive environment for the body, you relax more, the muscles are freer, your joints are easier to move and essentially a healthy mind means a healthy body.

One simple technique you can use, this is effectively a meditation technique, focusing on the breathing. To start with, get yourself in a nice relaxed place, sitting down preferably, on the floor, chair or sofa with your feet planted to the floor and hands resting on your lap. Take a nice deep breath in for 3 through the nose, hold for 4 and out for 5 through the mouth. There are different variations you can do such as doing each stage for 4 seconds or another called the Wim Hof Technique which is a more advanced one but for now, if you try that, it’ll get you into a more zen like state really. So if you repeat the process three or four times, with your eyes closed, simply focus on your breathing, forget everything that’s going on and just relax into it. Then after 3 or 4 exhalations, allow your breathing to return to normal and just observe your breathing, almost from an outside perspective, without judging or trying to change it. Notice the ribs or abdomen expanding, you can rest your hands on your abdomen if it’s easier for you to feel what’s happening. Then if you just imagine the air entering your body, expanding the lungs, then as you exhale, let all the tension release off, feel your body relax as it happens, the muscles from your face, shoulders, arms, all the way down your body to your legs and feet, let it all relax, every muscle you can think of and just continue to breath in and out for a minute or two, however long you want. One thing I’ll say, whilst you’re doing so, it’s natural for thoughts to enter the mind and that’s ok, allow them to come & go, try not to focus on them too much, just keep reminding yourself to return your thoughts back to the breath to centre yourself once you know you’ve been distracted. So by creating a relaxed mind that will help to contribute to a healthy body in turn.

That’s all for today, that’s my bitesize bit to help your help flourish, hope you enjoyed and I’ll see you next time, thank you, goodbye.