Want to glide through the giddy end of year schedule feeling calm and in control instead of frazzled and frantic?   Remembering to breathe correctly could be a good start.

Current research confirms you can relax your brain through your breath.  The trick is to breathe through your nose, activating the parasympathetic nervous system – your “rest and digest” response.  This causes you to produce happy hormones which decrease your heart rate and blood pressure. (Mouth-breathing, conversely, produces stress hormones which have the opposite effect).

So: inhale deeply through your nose until your lungs are full, expanding the abdomen and ribcage. Exhale through the nose, aiming for a count longer than the inhale.  (Exhaling through the nose appears to be more beneficial overall than mouth exhalation).

Now astound your friends, confound your colleagues and cruise your way to Christmas!