Hi Friends!

I have shared with you already that I have participated in a mind-body course this month that taught me simple practices to cultivate health and wellbeing. Bolstered once again by the science behind these practices, I decided to bring it to the office and to my patients. It was not the doctor-ey thing to do but felt right nonetheless.

I have long realized that retraining our minds to resist our automatic habits requires a dose of pause as much as a dose of ozempic (if not more-so) and when we learn to pause between trigger and reaction, we can identify our true hunger.

It’s not a surprise that we get trapped in mindless habit loops. It’s much like driving to work. How often do you think, How did I get here? Despite daydreaming, we find that we have taken our usual route to get where we need to be without so much as a thought. We have repeated the path so many times that we can do it without even thinking. So too it is with our habits.

In order to get out of auto-pilot we need to interrupt that habit loop. That’s where mind-body practices come in.

So this week I began with the offer of a breathing practice. All but one took me up on the offer  and the response was unanimous. Within minutes, my patients reported a sense of ease, calm, agency and confidence and felt assured that they could easily incorporate this practice into their day-to-day lives particularly when triggered by habit, as a way to intercept the habit loop.

It has been so well received that this week on HealthBite, I decided to share this conversation with you. I offer a short primer on the how and why behind a breathing practice and then share my own guided breathing practice, all in under 25 minutes!

I played it for my 10-year old last night and after a good night’s sleep, she told me, “mommy, you have great content 🙂 ” See if you agree!

Wishing you peace of mind.

Xx,

Dr. Adrienne