Learn Hardcore Russian: Это маленькое напоминание помогает мне не забывать о дыхании и самочувствии даже в стрессовый день. - This small reminder helps me not to forget about my breathing and well-being even on a stressful day.

Because напоминание is a neuter noun in Russian, so both the demonstrative and the adjective must be in the neuter singular nominative form:

напоминание – neuter, nominative singular
это – neuter form of “this” (agreeing with a neuter noun)
маленькое – neuter nominative form of the adjective маленький

If the noun were feminine, like записка “note,” you would say:

эта маленькая записка – “this small note”

But with neuter напоминание you must say:

это маленькое напоминание

What exactly is the function of это here? Is it “this is” or “this”?

Here это works as a demonstrative pronoun meaning “this” (as in “this reminder”), not as the standalone “this is …” structure.

Compare:

Это маленькое напоминание помогает мне…
– “This small reminder helps me…” (our sentence)
Это маленькое напоминание.
– “This is a small reminder.” / “This small reminder.” (can be either, depending on context)

In both cases the form это is used with a neuter noun, but in the full sentence it’s clearly part of the noun phrase это маленькое напоминание functioning as the subject.

Why does маленькое end in -ое, not -ый or -ая?

Adjectives in Russian agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

Напоминание is neuter, singular, nominative.
The corresponding adjective ending for this combination is -ое:

masculine nominative: маленький
feminine nominative: маленькая
neuter nominative: маленькое

So we must say маленькое напоминание.

Why is напоминание in the nominative case here?

Напоминание is the subject of the sentence – the thing that performs the action помогает (“helps”).

The basic pattern is:

[Subject in nominative] + [verb] + [objects / other parts]

So:

Это маленькое напоминание – subject (nominative)
помогает – verb
мне – indirect object (dative)
не забывать о дыхании и самочувствии… – infinitive phrase (what it helps to do)

Why is мне in the dative case after помогает?

The verb помогать / помочь (to help) requires the dative case for the person who is helped:

помогать кому? – “to help whom?” (in dative)

Examples:

Он помогает мне. – He helps me.
Она помогает ему. – She helps him.
Это напоминание помогает мне. – This reminder helps me.

So мне (dative of я) is correct here.

Why do we use не забывать (imperfective) instead of не забыть (perfective)?

The choice of aspect changes the meaning:

не забывать – imperfective: “not to forget (in general / as a habit / repeatedly)”
не забыть – perfective: “not to forget (on one specific occasion / to not fail to remember once)”

In this sentence, the idea is ongoing, repeated help:

This reminder helps me not to forget (in general) about my breathing and well-being, especially on stressful days.

That’s a habitual, continuous situation, so the imperfective не забывать is the natural choice.

If you said:

Это напоминание поможет мне не забыть…

that would sound more like: “This reminder will help me not to forget (once, on a particular occasion).”

Why do we use an infinitive after помогает: помогает мне не забывать?

The verb помогать often takes this pattern:

помогать + dative person + infinitive

meaning “to help someone to do something”.

Examples:

Он помогает мне учить русский. – He helps me (to) learn Russian.
Напоминание помогает мне не опаздывать. – A reminder helps me not to be late.
Это маленькое напоминание помогает мне не забывать… – This small reminder helps me not to forget…

So не забывать is the infinitive that expresses what it helps you do (or rather, not do).

Why is it о дыхании и самочувствии, not о дыхание и самочувствие?

The preposition о (“about”) requires the prepositional case:

о ком? о чём? – about whom? about what?

Both дыхание and самочувствие are neuter nouns that in the prepositional singular take -и:

дыхание (nom.) → о дыхании (prep.)
самочувствие (nom.) → о самочувствии (prep.)

When you connect two nouns that share the same preposition and case, only the first one takes the preposition, but both are in that case:

о дыхании и самочувствии – about breathing and (your) well-being

Why do we say забывать о дыхании, not забывать дыхание?

There is a nuance in meaning and typical usage:

забывать о чём-то – “to forget about something” in the sense of stop paying attention / neglect.
- забывать о здоровье – to neglect your health
- забывать о друзьях – to neglect your friends
забывать что-то – “to forget something” as a direct object (information, an object, etc.)
- забывать слова – forget words
- забывать ключи – forget/leave your keys

With дыхание (“breathing”), the natural idea here is “stop thinking about / neglect your breathing”, so Russian typically uses забывать о дыхании.

You could also say:

забывать дышать – “forget to breathe” (focus on the action to breathe)

But забывать дыхание with a direct object sounds unnatural in this context.

What is the difference between дыхание and дышать here? Why use the noun?

дышать – verb: “to breathe”
дыхание – noun: “breathing, breath”

Using the noun дыхание emphasizes the process / state rather than the act as a verb. It sounds more natural in combination with забывать о:

не забывать о дыхании – not to forget about your breathing (as an ongoing process you pay attention to)

If you used the verb, you’d say:

не забывать дышать – not to forget to breathe (perform the action)

Both are possible, but о дыхании fits better with the idea of mindfulness / awareness of breathing.

What exactly does самочувствие mean? Is it just “health”?

Самочувствие is not exactly the same as general “health.” It means:

how you feel physically and emotionally at the moment, your sense of well-being.

Examples:

Как твоё самочувствие? – How are you feeling? / How do you feel physically?
Сегодня у меня плохое самочувствие. – I feel unwell today.

So о дыхании и самочувствии is something like:

“about my breathing and how I feel (my well-being)”

If you said о здоровье, that would be more like “about my health” in a broader or more medical sense.

Why is it в стрессовый день, not в стрессовом дне?

The preposition в can take either accusative or prepositional, and the meaning changes:

в + prepositional – “in/inside (where?)”
- в доме – in the house
- в дне – in the day (very unusual; almost never used like that)
в + accusative – “into / during (when?) / for a period”
- в следующий день – on the next day
- в этот день – on this day
- в отпуск – on vacation (to vacation)

Here, в стрессовый день is a time expression meaning “on a stressful day / even when the day is stressful,” so we use accusative:

стрессовый (masc. acc. sing.) + день (masc. inanimate, same form as nominative)

How does даже work in даже в стрессовый день?

Даже means “even” and is used to emphasize that something happens despite an especially difficult or unexpected condition.

даже в стрессовый день – even on a stressful day

It highlights that, in addition to normal days, the reminder still helps you even under extra stress, when it might be hardest to remember your breathing and well-being.

Could we change the word order to Это напоминание маленькое помогает мне… or Маленькое это напоминание помогает мне…?

Both of those alternatives sound unnatural or wrong in standard Russian.

The normal, neutral order for “this small reminder” is:

это маленькое напоминание – demonstrative + adjective + noun

Putting маленькое after напоминание (as напоминание маленькое) is possible only in a different structure, usually to add a comment:

Это напоминание маленькое, но очень полезное.
– This reminder is small, but very useful.

There, напоминание is the subject and маленькое is a predicate adjective (“is small”).

In our original sentence we want one noun phrase as the subject, so we keep:

Это маленькое напоминание помогает мне…