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Deep Breathing Techniques to Help You Beat Stress

deep breathingPicture this: You’re sitting at your desk, tackling mountains of paperwork and crunching numbers on Excel like a keyboard wizard. Just when you thought you had it all under control, bam! You’re summoned to a meeting and bombarded with even more projects. Your desk is now drowning in a sea of paperwork, and you find yourself juggling tasks like a stressed-out circus performer. Deadlines loom ominously, and stress levels skyrocket. It’s like being trapped in a never-ending desk nightmare. Yikes! But fear not, for there is a simple solution to vanquish stress in this chaotic scenario: Deep Breathing!

Deep breathing is the secret weapon you’ve been searching for, and it doesn’t require any fancy equipment or a specific time and place. It’s a stress-busting technique that works wonders! When you take a moment to breathe deeply, your brain sends signals to your body, coaxing it to relax. By incorporating deep breathing into your routine, you can reap all the incredible benefits it has to offer.

What Are These Magical Benefits?

  • Zen-like Calm: Deep breathing has the power to soothe your mind and nervous system. You can literally feel the stress melt away!
  • Oxygen Boost: Ah, sweet oxygen! Deep breathing helps you take in more of this life-giving gas, nourishing your body and brain.
  • Heart Party: Your heart deserves some love, and deep breathing delivers. It lowers your heart rate, respiratory rates, and blood pressure, giving your ticker a much-needed break.
  • Sleepy Time: Need to catch some Z’s? Deep breathing is your go-to sandman. It helps you drift off to dreamland, soothes your muscles, and even speeds up your meditation mojo.
  • Stress Ninja: When tension strikes during exams, interviews, or dreaded deadlines, deep breathing comes to the rescue. Consider it your trusty stress-busting sidekick.
  • Energy Flow: Deep breathing helps clean and rejuvenate your body’s energy channels, like a refreshing spa day for your inner chi. It keeps your heating and cooling cycles in check, so you can stay balanced and invigorated.
  • Breath of Fresh Air: Say goodbye to shortness of breath! Deep breathing prevents pesky air from getting trapped in your lungs, making you feel refreshed, centered, and ready to take on the world.

Now that you’re armed with this knowledge, let’s dive into two simple yet effective deep breathing exercises.

1. Simple Abdominal Breathing Exercise

Feeling anxious? No problem! Try this relaxation technique that you can perform anywhere, anytime – standing, sitting, or lying down.

To practice this technique, you need to:

  • Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your abdomen should expand and your chest should rise slightly.
  • Exhale slowly through your mouth. As you blow the air out, purse your lips slightly, but keep your jaw relaxed. You may hear a soft “whooshing” sound as you exhale.
  • Repeat this breathing exercise for several minutes.

Begin with just 5 minutes. If you feel 5 minutes are too long, you can start with just 2 minutes. Increase the time when you begin finding it easier and comfortable. You can practice this multiple times a day.

2. Equal Breathing

Now, let’s take deep breathing to the next level with some equal breathing magic. This technique focuses on inhales and exhales of the same duration, usually between 3 and 5 counts. Once you’ve mastered it, you can do it during yoga, or even while conquering your daily activities.

To practice this technique:

  • Take a comfortable seated position and breathe in and out through your nose only.
  • Count during each inhale and exhale to make sure they are even in duration. Alternatively, choose a word or short phrase to repeat during each inhale and exhale.
  • You can take a slight pause after each inhale and exhale if you feel comfortable (normal breathing involves a natural pause).
  • Continue practicing this breathing technique for at least 5 minutes and you can increase the duration up to 10-15 minutes.

So there you have it! Deep breathing is your ticket to a calmer, more relaxed you. Remember, stress may try to trap you at your desk, but with these breathing exercises in your arsenal, you’ll be the master of stress, deadlines, and paperwork mayhem. Take a deep breath and let the relaxation flow through your veins like a cool breeze on a sunny day. You’ve got this!

If this article helped you, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. You can find more articles and techniques to beat stress here. You can also reach out to a GOQii Coach for expert guidance by subscribing to Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce  

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4 Effective Tips For Managing Couple Conflicts

4 effective tips to solving couple conflictsHow many times have we fought in our intimate relationships with our partner? Definitely more than a few times. Couple conflicts, in themselves, are not unhealthy. They give us an opportunity to look at the areas of the relationship that need the most attention. For instance, a conflict about one partner not helping with housework highlights feelings of being left out and alone in life’s mundane struggles. While there are countless reasons couples fight or disagree, these conflicts act like a muslin cloth, filtering out the impurities that affect the relationship.

All relationships, including successful ones, experience conflicts. It’s unavoidable. Fortunately, it’s not the presence of conflict but how it’s managed that predicts the success or failure of a relationship. We say “manage” conflict rather than “resolve” because relationship conflict is natural and has functional, positive aspects that provide opportunities for growth and understanding. Additionally, some problems can’t be solved due to natural personality differences between partners.

Couple Conflicts and How To Manage Them 

1. Criticism
We criticize our partner when they fail to live up to our expectations. But criticism is different than a complaint. The latter is about specific issues, whereas the former is an attack on your partner at the core of their character. In effect, you are dismantling their whole being when you criticize. For instance:

Complaint: “You reached almost an hour late for our lunch.”

Criticism: “Punctuality is an issue with you. You are never on time. You never think of me, you are that forgetful, you’re just selfish.

The problem with criticism is that, it makes the victim feel assaulted, rejected, and hurt. It often causes the perpetrator and victim to fall into a vicious pattern where criticism reappears with greater frequency and intensity, which eventually leads to contempt.

Antidote to Criticism – Gentle Start-Up: A complaint focuses on a specific incident, but criticism attacks a person’s very character. The antidote for criticism is to focus on the complaint without blame. Avoid saying “you”, which can indicate blame, and instead talk about your feelings using “I” statements and express what you need in a positive way.

Rephrasing the above complaint in this manner, you can say, “I was really eager to meet you today at lunch. Off late, we haven’t been able to spend a lot of time together and I felt disappointed when I did not see you on time”.

2. Contempt
Contempt goes far beyond criticism. While criticism attacks your partner’s character, contempt assumes a position of moral superiority over them. When we contempt someone, we are truly mean — we treat them with disrespect, call them names, and mock them with sarcasm. The target of contempt is made to feel worthless.

I will quote a real example of contempt from my relationship when the man said on the issue of his lack of libido that I am a sexual pervert (tharak). While I reacted to this insinuation, also putting blame on his character, both of us had our own learnings from the episode. I resorted to criticism and he resorted to contempt.

Antidote to Contempt: is to build a culture of appreciation and respect in your relationship. Remember the tip – Small Things Often: If you regularly express appreciation, gratitude, affection, and respect for your partner, you’ll create a positive home in your relationship that acts as a buffer for negative feelings. The more positive you feel, the less likely that you’ll feel or express contempt!

3. Defensiveness
We become defensive when we feel accused, we fish for accuses and play the innocent victim so that our partner will back off. Unfortunately, these excuses never work. Our excuses just tell our partner that we don’t take their concerns seriously and we won’t take responsibility for our mistakes.

Question: Did you not see that I was attending this important official call and you put the pressure cooker on, it was making whistles and disturbing me

Defensive response: It’s okay, even other people would enjoy the sound of whistles.

Antidote to Defensiveness: Take Responsibility: Defensiveness is self-protection in the form of innocent victimhood to keep off a perceived attack. Most people become defensive when they are being criticized, but the problem is that being defensive never solves the problem at hand. Defensiveness is an indirect way of blaming your partner. You mean that the problem isn’t me, it’s you. Thus, the problem is not resolved and the conflict escalates further. The antidote is to accept responsibility, specific to the conflict.

4. Stonewalling
Stonewalling occurs when the person withdraws from the interaction, shuts down, and stops responding to their partner. Rather than confronting the issues with their partner, people who stonewall can make avoiding maneuvers such as turning away, acting busy, stop talking or showing distracting behaviors like scrolling on the phone while you talk to them or spending too much time sleeping. Stonewalling is like a flight or fight response and puts couples under a lot of emotional pressure.

Antidote to Stonewalling – Practice Physiological Self-Soothing: If you feel like withdrawing or shutting off in a conflict, take a break. Allow your body to physiologically calm down by doing an activity of interest such as walk in the park, cooking your favorite dish, getting ready, doing anything you like. Inform your partner that you need some time for yourself and then return to the discussion in a rational and respectful way.

We hope this article on managing couple conflicts helps you form a stronger connection with your partner! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more articles by our Sexual Wellness Expert Pallavi Barnwal, check out Healthy Reads.

#BeTheForce 

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Which Vitamins Are Good For Skin Repair?

skin repairSkin is the largest organ of our body and the one that is directly exposed to the outer environment every day. External factors like sunlight, wind, dust, cold weather, alcohol, and smoking, as well as internal factors like dehydration, aging, poor nutrition, stress, and lack of sleep, can damage the skin. When we feel that our skin is damaged or to prevent skin damage, many of us tend to fall for the plethora of skincare products available in the market. But in reality, we need to work on fixing our damaged skin internally rather than relying on external products that may contain harmful chemicals. So, what do we do for skin repair? The answer is simple—it’s the vitamins in our diet!

Which Vitamins Can Be Used For Skin Repair? 

There are many vitamins found in food itself that can work wonders for skin repair. Let’s take a look at which vitamins can help:

1. Vitamin A:

  • Benefits: Rich in antioxidants, Vitamin A protects the skin from sunburn by preventing the breakdown of collagen, a protein that gives elasticity to the skin. It helps in the regeneration of both the upper and lower layers of skin cells. Vitamin A also moisturizes the skin, making it effective for treating dry, itchy, and bumpy skin. In cases of inflammation or wounds, the antioxidants in Vitamin A protect the body from harmful free radicals.
  • Food Sources: Orange-colored foods like carrots, papaya, sweet potato, mango, dried apricots, pumpkin, red bell pepper, tomato, and cantaloupe. Non-vegetarians can also find Vitamin A in liver meat.

2. Vitamin B:

  • Benefits: Vitamin B helps in the formation of new skin cells.
    • Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Maintains healthy collagen levels and balances skin oil, healing dryness. Found in almonds, spinach, beef liver, dairy products, and mushrooms.
    • Vitamin B3 (Niacin): Treats sun-damaged skin, eczema, dry skin, and rosacea. Found in dairy products, fish, chicken, cereals, and mushrooms.
    • Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): Keeps the skin hydrated, preventing aging and acne. Found in mushrooms, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and avocado.
    • Vitamin B7 (Biotin): Repairs skin from acne, fungal infections, and rashes. Found in almonds, tomatoes, onions, eggs, sardines, and sweet potatoes.
    • Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid): Repairs skin cell damage caused by free radicals. Found in green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, beets, and okra.
    • Vitamin B12: Reduces inflammation, dryness, and redness in chronic skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema, and dermatitis. Found in dairy, fish, meat, and eggs.

3. Vitamin C:

  • Benefits: Vitamin C plays a huge role in the natural production of collagen in the body. It is useful in treating photoaging, hyperpigmentation, and immune suppression caused by UV rays. Vitamin C promotes tissue healing and neutralizes free radicals that cause oxidative stress. It also helps in the production of barrier lipids, preventing skin dryness and moisture loss.
  • Food Sources: Citrus fruits like oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemon, kiwi, strawberries, green pepper, guavas, cherries, plum, broccoli, and cantaloupe.

4. Vitamin D:

  • Benefits: Vitamin D helps in wound healing and modulates inflammation. It also has antimicrobial properties that may help treat acne caused by bacterial overgrowth.
  • Food Sources: Sunlight exposure, fish like sardines, salmon, herring, and mackerel, egg yolk, and fortified foods like cereals.

5. Vitamin E:

  • Benefits: Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant with photoprotective and anti-tumorigenic properties. It protects the skin against solar radiation and acts as a scavenger against free radicals. It is effective in treating skin conditions like atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, melasma, acne vulgaris, and cutaneous ulcers.
  • Food Sources: Nuts and seeds like almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, and avocado.

Remember, it is always better to avoid self-medication with vitamin supplements, as overdosing can cause severe side effects. A variety of nutrient-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds can provide all the necessary vitamins for skin repair. While topical vitamins are available in the market, getting vitamins through food internally is a safer and more effective approach.

Before you begin consuming any of the foods listed above, please consult your doctor, nutritionist or dietitian to find out if you have any allergies or deficiencies. We hope this article helps you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more on skin repair, check out Healthy Reads or speak to a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce 

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From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

Ananda Mukherjee Health StoryAs we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the conversation, celebrating the strength and uniqueness of each survivor.

Today, we bring you the inspiring survival story of our player ‘Anand Mukherjee’, a testament to courage, determination, and the unwavering human spirit. Anand’s journey is not just a story of battling cancer but a celebration of life, love, and the unique ways in which he turned challenges into triumphs, with help from his GOQii Coach. His story reminds us that while cancer may be a common adversary, every survivor’s path is extraordinary, and their voice deserves to be heard.

We present before you Ananda’s journey and reflect on the power of unity, hope, and the unique story that binds us all in the fight against cancer.

Going From Slender To Overweight 

Ananda Mukherjee had a very poor work-life balance. This coupled with bad eating habits such as drinking several cups of coffee, eating unhealthy and sleeping less really took a toll on his body. “I could never sleep, so I was on sleeping pills,” says Ananda. 

Not being able to sustain such a lifestyle, Ananda Mukherjee quit his job in 2018 but didn’t do much for his health. When COVID struck, he couldn’t exercise or go out – which made his life pretty sedentary. The only positive outcome he says was that he was able to add certificates to the hobbies he indulged in such as Interior Design and Gardening & Landscaping.

In the course of time, before he realized, his weight had increased from 56kg to 83kg. “I was asked by people, what has happened to you?” Ananda says that he was slender from the age of 15 till 45 and his weight had remained the same. So when he gained weight, it was noticed by everyone. 

More Bad News…

In 2021, he was diagnosed with a terminal medical condition that affected his intestine  (Adenocarcinoma in the small intestine i.e. Cancer of the Intestine). The first thing his doctor told him was to quit smoking and get active. His food habits also needed to change. He had to bring some discipline in his life. 

As his medication and radiation treatment began, the side-effects such as weight loss, loss of appetite, digestion issues like gas, bloating, etc. began to show. All of this also affected him mentally and emotionally. He was on antidepressant pills for his anxiety issues as well. 

During this time, he was introduced to GOQii by a friend and from social media. When he did his research, he realized that it’s not just a fitness tracker but a service that offers personalized health coaching as well. He says, “Without any hesitation I decided to get a GOQii and try it”. 

Getting Back On Track With GOQii 

Ananda Mukherjee joined GOQii in September 2021. At the time he joined, he weighed 70kg, his HRA was 43 and his BMI was 25.71. His health goal was to lose fat, gain muscle, improve sleep, get rid of stress and anxiety and control his BP. 

Since he was under radiation therapy, after each radiation session, his health goal would change as per the side effects he faced. He had lost 5kg due to the radiation therapy. His health goals fluctuated between improving oxygen levels, heart rate, getting rid of GI issues like gas, bloating, indigestion, nausea as well as respiratory problems like cough, cold, chest congestion, etc. Along with help from his GOQii Coach Vaishali, he had to manage lifestyle changes accordingly.

Coach Vaishali suggested simple healthy changes in his lifestyle which included eating fruits, drinking lukewarm lemon water in the morning, including lemon zest, and having wheatgrass and aloe vera juice to boost immunity. For protein and omega 3, she suggested dry fruits.

During the course of their journey, she got him away from sugar and smoking. Ananda was asked to engage in his hobbies and meditation to improve his mental and emotional wellbeing as well as remain stress-free. 

Ananda also shared his journey with us in detail as he spoke to our Founder & CEO Vishal Gondal

What Changes Did Ananda Mukherjee Experience? 

When asked about his journey so far, Ananda said, “GOQii has played a huge role. It brought about positivity in my life. My Coach Vaishali just created new habits based on my health goals and helped me follow those habits.” 

His radiation treatment is now complete and he is happy that he is able to sleep without taking any pills. His neighbors and friends are surprised at how fresh and healthy he looks now and his wife has also complimented him.

“I blindly follow what my coach suggests and that has given me results. She has been a mom at times, an elder sister at times and has been able to get me to do things. I am totally off smoking and alcohol and my diet is simple,” he says. 

Ananda has been getting all his exercise lessons and nutrition tidbits from GOQii Play classes. He loves the recipe classes on GOQii Play and has been able to make quite a few dishes at home to avoid eating out.

He jokes with his friends saying, I am just chilling and losing weight and has been advocating GOQii to all of them. He says, “This current life is a tectonic shift in my life.” He is able to get back to his medium sized clothes from having gone upto XL size. 

He says, “A coach is necessary to achieve your goals especially when it is about health. There has to be someone to motivate you to do the right things. I have always believed in mentors and with a coach or a mentor your journey only becomes that much more interesting and easier”. 

Ever since being on GOQii, in almost 9 months’ time, Ananda has been able to get into the Elite category. He is following a healthy lifestyle, enjoying his life and is now a landscape designer and also loves gardening. He walks daily for physical fitness and meditates for mental and emotional wellbeing.

Currently his HRA is 81. He has stopped taking antidepressant and sleeping pills as well. His current weight stands at 67kg.

What Does Coach Vaishali Vibhute Have To Say About Her Player?

Ananda started his journey on Sept 20, 2021. The day he joined as a player, he was very depressed, stressed, feeling low both mentally and physically, emotionally disturbed and overweight. He smoked a lot. When I started coaching, he weighed 70kg, HRA was 43 and BMI was 25.71.

Despite being a fitness freak and having a gym at home, he had stopped exercising when he had quit his banking job, which led to a lot of weight gain. To get him back on track, I gave him a target of completing 3k steps and gradually increased it to 5k. I also gave him a few challenges like doing light weight exercises, and following pre and post workout meals. He completed all these tasks diligently. 

When GOQii launched the SAFE (Sedentary, Active, Fit and Elite) model, I told him I would like to see him in the ELITE category, as he was in the sedentary category. He accepted the challenge as he had a burning desire to achieve his health goals.

It is never easy to achieve a health goal. It requires some sacrifices, discipline, consistency and determination. If you are able to handle these 4 aspects well, nothing can stop you and Ananda has proven this fact! Though it was challenging for him to maintain his weight due to his medical condition, his endless efforts and discipline helped him achieve what he aimed for.

We’re wishing Ananda Mukherjee well on his journey of being healthy and fit! Does his Health Story inspire you? Do you want to make a radical lifestyle shift as well? Subscribe for GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching and start now: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

For more inspiring Health Stories, check out Healthy Reads.

#BeTheForce  

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]