Calming Breathing Exercises 2: Others

1. Calming Cocoa

• Create a cut-out of a hot chocolate mug and plate and hold it like a real mug

• breathe in through the nose at a slow count from 1-5 and smell the hot chocolate

• breathe out through the mouth to blow on the hot cocoa and cool it down, counting 1-5 slowly

• After each round of breathing, stick on a paper marshmallow to the top of the mug; continue breathing and adding marshmallows until you feel calmer

2. Blowing Bubbles

• Take a deep breath and blow out soft and long to create a big bubble. Imagine the bubble growing bigger as you blow for a longer time

• follow up with multiple short, soft breaths to remove the smaller frizz of bubbles

3. Belly Breath

• place one hand on belly and other hand on chest

• while inhaling and exhaling (5-5-10 or 7-11), notice how the chest and belly rises and falls

4. Smell Flower + Blow Candle

• Pretend you have a flower in one hand and a candle in the other

• Smell the flower, taking a deep breath in through the nose

• Exhale and blow out the candle strongly, breathing through the mouth with an O shape

5. Washing Machine Breath

• Sit criss-cross-apple-sauce, point pointer fingers toward each other in front of mouth

• Inhale deeply through the nose.

• While exhaling out through the mouth, swirl the fingers around in circles (like a washing machine) and make swishing noises

6. Hot Air Balloon Breath

• cup your hands around your mouth

• inhale deeply into the palms

• while exhaling through the mouth, expand hands outward, as if the hot air balloon is growing bigger

7. Shoulder Roll Breath

• While breathing in, roll shoulders up toward the ears

• while breathing out, drop the shoulders back down

8. Color Breathing

• breathe in while imaging a happy, calm color

• breathe out and imagine a color that represents stress or sadness slowly flowing out of the body like watercolor