Easy Emotional Fitness Training Exercises

Exercise number one: The One Minute Meditation (The OMM)

1. Breathe in slowly to a count of five.
2. Hold your breath for a count of five.
3. Breathe out slowly to another count of five.
4. Breathe normally and simply observe how it feels to breathe in and out.
5. If thoughts make their presence known,  observe them and continue breathing; the same with feelings.
6. At the end of a minute, sooner if you want, take a deep breathe in, hold it for a count of five.
7. As you breathe out, say a silent “Ahhhhhh” or “Thank you” and smile softly.

Practice the OMM until you can do it comfortably and without having to read the exercise.  That takes as little as five times for some, twenty-five for others.

Here’s an added bonus: the OMM can be used to calm you when stress mounts. When you are aware of being stressed, OMM. To strengthen its effect as a calming tool, after the first breath, add a two or three word calming mantra as you continue breathe in and out.  “Life goes on” works for some,   “Staying strong” for others, still others craft their own mantra.

Exercise two: Practice Gratitude.  Every time you say thank you, if you do it with full awareness you are building your emotional fitness. Get in the habit of thanking not just people, but all the good things you encounter as you go about your day.  Moreover, when bad things happen, look for a lesson, and when you find it OMM and say “Thank You.”

Exercise three: Be With Beauty: Look at the picture below and OMM. First breathe in all that is beautiful about the picture; as you hold your breath, hold on to the beauty; finally, as your breathe out, remember to smile and say thank you.

Extend the power of this exercise by learning to  find beauty where ever you are; as the sage Confucius  noted, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

One trick when beauty is not immediately visible  is to narrow your focus. Find a picture in a museum unappealing? Focus on what you do find appealing. Perhaps that is a color, the way a line swirls, or a form takes shape.

Use the picture above to practice narrowing your focus. Find beauty in the water, the setting sun, the sun’s reflection, the moss covered log, or the sand under the log.

When you go out into the real world look for beauty and breathe it in and always remember to be grateful.  

Also surround  yourself with what you find beautiful you can practice this exercise off and on throughout the day. Use pictures, beautiful music, flowers, sea shells or even rocks to create beauty spots wherever you sit.

Visit my Be With Beauty Pinterest Board. If you want to be a Be With Beauty photographer, let me know at [email protected] and I will send you details about how to share your Being With Beauty pictures with others.

Exercise four: Remember  what matters.  Thinking more deeply about what matters builds emotional strength. Read this quote and reflect on its meaning.

Saad’s quote reminds you of the value of keeping beauty in your life.  Quotes are sound bites of wisdom; sound bites often contain hidden truths.   If  you think a bit more deeply,  about Saad’s quote, it can only apply to those who will not starve if they give up a loaf. When you can sell a loaf without starving you or your family you are blessed by life. Thinking more deeply about any thing develops critical thinking and that is an Emotional Intelligence skill.