At the Greenwell Center, we believe wellness begins with awareness—and that even the smallest mindful moments can shift your energy, physiology, and emotional balance. Science agrees: just one minute of focused breathing and centering can begin to calm the nervous system, restore coherence between heart and brain, and help you refocus from the inside out.

The Science of Centering

When you feel stressed or scattered, your body moves into a state of sympathetic activation—often called the fight, flight, or freeze response. Heart rate increases, breathing becomes shallow, and your brain is flooded with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. This system is designed to protect us, but when it stays active too long, it can lead to fatigue, anxiety, and disconnection from our own sense of peace.

Centering techniques—such as slow, mindful breathing or grounding your awareness in the body—help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, sometimes called the “rest and restore” mode. Research shows that within 60 seconds of deep, rhythmic breathing, your heart rate variability improves, blood pressure lowers, and your brain begins to shift from beta (stress-driven) to alpha (relaxed, focused) brainwave patterns.

These physiological changes don’t just calm you down—they reconnect you with your inner compass. By bringing your awareness inward, you align the energy of body, mind, and spirit, creating a sense of centered presence.

The Power of the Breath

Your breath is one of the simplest and most powerful tools for creating peace. A slow inhale through the nose, a gentle pause, and a long, easy exhale through the mouth can create instant harmony in your system. Breathwork influences the vagus nerve—a key part of the body’s relaxation response—helping to regulate the heart and digestive system while releasing muscular tension.

Try this quick 60-second practice:

1. Sit or stand tall, letting your shoulders relax.
2. Inhale slowly through your nose.
3. Let your hands rise up from by your sides to your shoulder height.
4. Exhale, releasing your arms to softly descend back to your sides.
5. Repeat, feeling the connection of the feet to the lightness of your arms.

As you breathe, let your focus rest on your heart area. Imagine each breath creating a soft wave of light or warmth through your chest. By the end of one minute, notice how your body feels—more grounded, open, and at ease. This movement is known as commencement and can be found on our YouTube channel here.

Finding Focus Inside

Centering isn’t about escaping the world—it’s about finding your still point within it. Through Tai Chi, meditation, or mindfulness-based practices, you learn to observe rather than react, to flow rather than fight. Studies from Harvard and Stanford have shown that even short periods of mindfulness improve concentration, emotional regulation, and overall well-being.

When you take 60 seconds to turn inward, you’re not just calming your body—you’re strengthening your mental focus. Each moment of awareness trains the brain to return to equilibrium faster, even during chaos. Over time, these micro-moments of peace accumulate, reshaping your baseline from stress-driven to steady and serene.

Bringing Peace into Everyday Life

You don’t need a quiet studio or a long meditation session to center yourself. You can do it while waiting in line, sitting at a red light, or pausing before a meeting. Each time you take a mindful breath, you’re teaching your body that peace is possible—even in motion.

At the Greenwell Center, we use practices like Tai Chi, movement therapy, and energy awareness to help people rediscover their natural balance. The Magnifying Peace Project was created as a reminder that peace begins with a single, intentional breath.

So the next time life feels overwhelming, remember this:
It doesn’t take an hour to find your calm.
It only takes 60 seconds to peace.

Tai Chi can be found at: Tai Chi Cape Breton (in person, Inverness County Cape Breton Island), Wine Country Tai Chi Society (in person, West Kelowna and Peachland BC), or Movement and Music (online). Support for wellbeing is just a class away.

The post 60 Seconds to Peace: The Power of Centering in a Busy World first appeared on Greenwell Center for Holistic Health.

https://youtu.be/NhKlB5lDGc4?si=27L44trYWyUiKDVf

Finding Power in the Solar Plexus

Michelle began by guiding listeners to explore the area just above the belly button—the solar plexus—home to the diaphragm and key digestive organs like the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder. Often, shallow breathing and poor posture constrict this area, tightening both body and emotions. This physical smallness can lead to feelings of anger, resentment, and self-judgment—emotions that belong to the wood element in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

“When you breathe bigger,” Michelle shared, “you create expansion. That’s when transformation can happen.” This simple truth is the gateway to empowerment—by giving yourself the space to breathe fully, you give yourself permission to take up space emotionally and energetically as well.

A Breath and Movement Practice to Expand Your Energy

Michelle offered a beautifully simple Tai Chi movement called Commencement to help listeners embody expansion. Whether seated or standing, the practice begins by gently pressing into the feet or seat to invite the arms to float upward with the breath. As the breath deepens and the joints soften, the arms rise with ease, flowing through energetic pathways that align the mind and body.

She invited listeners to breathe in “peace within,” feeling the belly expand and the body settle. Exploring what this intention extends to movement and relaxation. After exploring this for a few movement patterns, she then invites the listener to change the intention to “peace without,” connecting to the collective breath of millions and recognizing our place in something greater than ourselves.

This grounding practice helps release the constriction of judgment and isolation, and encourages a return to confidence, clarity, and connection.

Radiate and Rise: An Invitation for Empowered Living

In alignment with the episode’s theme of Radiate and Rise, Michelle encouraged everyone to approach each day with intention: “Start your day the way you want it to go.” Rather than beginning with stressful headlines or outside chaos, begin with breath, movement, and a conscious choice to expand into possibility.

Michaela beautifully reinforced this idea by reminding us that how we feel on the inside is reflected on the outside—and vice versa. When we feel boxed in physically, mentally, or emotionally, we can become disconnected from ourselves and others. But when we choose breath, posture, and intention, we reclaim our inner power and begin to shine our light more brightly in the world.

Watch and Learn More

If you’re curious to experience the Commencement movement or want to watch the energy unfold in real time, be sure to visit Michaela’s YouTube channel or Michelle Greenwell’s channel, where the full episode and guided practices are available. You’ll find more tools to support mind-body connection and discover how subtle shifts can unlock greater vitality and joy.

Also, be sure to follow the entire Radiate and Rise series this month, as Michaela shares the body, mind, and spirit aspects of the theme with each of her monthly guests.

Empowerment begins with the breath.
Radiance begins with presence.
And both begin with you.

Sip into Radiance: Bras D’Or Sunset and the Energy of Empowerment

To complement the empowering conversation on the solar plexus and living boldly, Dr. Michelle Greenwell brought along a radiant cup of Bras D’Or Sunset (pronounced ‘brah door’) from the Cape Breton Tea Company. This vibrant, orange-yellow blend is inspired by golden beach memories—bonfires at dusk, waves lapping the shore, and that soothing warmth of the setting sun. Infused with the intention to “put yourself at ease as you center into the golden memories that rejuvenate and inspire you,” Bras D’Or Sunset aligns beautifully with the solar plexus energy. Its glowing color and comforting essence serve as a gentle reminder to embrace your inner light, expand your energy, and rise into your day with confidence.

Bras D’Or Sunset is a part of the Harmony Blends series, that have traveled to Tenerife, Spain, and San Diego, California, for special conference presentations. The six teas in this series are colour coded for the chakra system and are part of an Unwinding Trauma – Building Resiliency program offered at the Greenwell Center for Holistic Health. You can find the Movement and Music 12 week course in the shop, which can walk you through the expansion of a challenge into its fruitful support for claiming new perspective and opportunity. These recorded sessions provide you with intuitive music played specifically for transforming each part of the trauma journey, along with movement patterns to bring into your daily practice. The teas are highlighted to provide you with a full series that can transform you by sipping on them through the day or adding them to challenging activities that you want to have support and empowerment with.

As you consider what you need to Radiate and Rise, Dr Michelle Greenwell, has many different tools to help you realize your dreams.

Are you interested in learning more about Tai Chi?

You can find the in-person classes on the calendar for the Greenwell Center for classes on Cape Breton Island in Inverness County. In the Okanagan Valley, you can find Wine Country Tai Chi Society classes in West Kelowna. Both offer seated and standing options for all levels and abilities. You can learn more about the classes by checking out their landing pages and blogs. For online classes, follow Michelle’s posts. Coming up in August is a special nature series to support how to take your Tai Chi out into nature with intuitive musician Colin MacLeod, and in the fall they will be expanding her programming into a certification program for movement enthusiasts as well as musicians wanting to learn more about playing for movement classes and using the Unwinding Trauma – Building Resiliency protocols.

Have you been inspired yet? Tea, podcasts, movement, connection, learning…it all begins with your action to learn more, bring more into your day, and expand your influence to the people around you.

The post Living Boldly from the Inside Out – Exploring the Solar Plexus with Michaela Jones first appeared on Greenwell Center for Holistic Health.