Breathing is something that is taken for granted.  Yet, it should be the most important thing on our gratitude list as well as our to-do list.  How will that read:  to do on Wednesday, 1. Breathe 2. Bake cookies 3. Walk the dog etc etc.  A bit odd to most but if a reminder is what we need, then so be it.  Stress is such a popular word.  Let’s flip that over and ask ourselves how to increase the peaceful easy feeling within.  In a word?  Breathe!  What is the main thing that tells you that you are alive?  Your breath.  What is the main way in which you oxygenate your body and its magnificent organs?  Your breath!  What is a quick way in which to calm yourself?  It’s in your breath!  So how do we capitalize on this valuable asset?  We breathe with feeling.  We breathe consciously.  Let me show you a simple technique.  It is called 5-8-8.  Breathe in for 5 counts, hold the breath in for 8 counts, breathe out for 8 counts.  Simple as that.  As with any muscle, you have to work it to develop it.  Practice makes perfect.  Initially you will find yourself counting fast!  But with time, this gets so addictive that you will find yourself foregoing other once attractive things like soap operas just to sit quietly and breathe deeply.  You will find your life takes on a new luster by making just this one change.  Can you believe that most people are breathing wrong?  Test yourself.  When you inhale, what happens to your stomach? It is supposed to puff out a bit, and collapse when you breathe out.  Breathe deeply at your times of supposedly “highest stress” and you will find that you soon drop that word from your vocabulary altogether as you only feel peace.  You are now the eye of any storm and your breath has carried you there.