Life can be crazy. Who hasn't experienced a time when you feel like you just can't take it anymore? When things get too busy and there's just too much on your table, what do you do? I don't know about you but here's what I find very effective when I feel like I want to scream because I've lined up way too much on my plate...
I take a moment, step away from what I'm freaking out over, and just breathe. Yup, I just breathe! Why would I choose to do something as basic and rudimentary as that? One of the reasons is because it's a lot healthier than doing other things to relieve the tension! Another is because the breathing process is a powerful healer. Who would have thought that something so basic as breathing could be so effective in calming us down and giving us the opportunity to reassess what's going on? Breathing can change a negative into a positive in, well...a breath! What the Buddhists have known for centuries is something I'd like you to consider making a part of your life right here and now. I call it "The Healing Tool of Breath".
Let's say you have been asked to speak in front of 500 people next week. Does the thought of getting up in front of such a large crowd strike fear deep within your soul? It does for many people just like you and I. I've been a Motivational Speaker for years now and I still get nervous whenever I speak before a crowd. It's natural and it's a part of what it is to be human. Getting up in front of so many isn't the most natural thing to do so of course we're a bit startled by the possibility. So what would you do to try to calm yourself down as you are heading towards the podium on that fateful day and all eyes seem to be on you as you look out and see the crowd of 500 waiting to see what you are going to do? You get to the podium and look up and see everyone staring right back at you. You then take a moment and take a deep breath. It's a natural thing we often do when confronted with situations that are totally uncomfortable for us. What happens when you take a moment and take that deep breath? You shift your focus from what you fear happen in the future and bring your attention back to the present. You take a moment for yourself to center and zero in on the situation at hand in the present, not the future or the past.
The gift of breath that we all have been given, when we chose to take a moment, step back and focus on it, can always return us to the present. If you are nervous about speaking, where does your mind automatically go? The future! You are afraid that you'll screw up somehow. Is that a present thought or one that is geared more towards something in the future that may or may not happen? Why waste your time in the future? It only serves to take you out of the present!
So how does all of this relate to not being able to find a moment to yourself when things really get busy? It's a matter of sink or swim. How so? Think of where you'd be if you didn't find some way to calm down and bring yourself back into balance. If you don't stop your journey towards getting even more snowed under by situations that seem to pile up that are beyond your control, where you'd wind up might not be a place that you'd feel very comfortable with...to say the least!
A great way to not even have to go down that road is to stop everything, even if it's only for a moment or two, and breathe. As a matter of fact, do this right now with me. Stop reading this for a moment and smile. Oh go ahead...just do it!!! Smile! Now, as you are smiling, take a nice long deep breath in and, let it out. Do this for a few more times....
Did you do it? If you did, how do you feel now? Is it possible that you might feel just a little better than when you started to read this article? I'm not talking about earth-shattering changes here. Sometimes the smallest shift makes the biggest waves. That's "The Healing Tool of Breath".
So whenever things just seem totally unbearable, just know that you have it within your power to shift that energy and make it into something much more powerful. The choice is yours though...it's totally up to you. You are the only one that can make the choice to feel better about things. Are you a victim of circumstance or are you empowered and in control of your life? Your breath and the wonderful breathing process that you have been naturally gifted with from the moment you got here, only knows for sure. It's up to you to connect with it on more of a conscious level. It's here whenever and wherever you need it
