The Angry Voice

There is an ancient saying, “Anger blows out the lamp of the mind.”

Anger that is out of control damages your reputation, accomplishes nothing, stresses your cardiovascular system and can even put your life at risk. Then there is honorable anger that focuses energy and helps to fuel a noble cause and often shines a light on a situation that needs to be exposed. Hopefully you avoid the road rage, the temper tantrums and the bar fights but know when to use honorable anger with discretion.

When you are dealing with your honorable anger (as opposed to pitching a fit), it is important to keep control of your sound. If you are angry over an issue or condition and you hope to quickly gain respect or at least understanding for your point of view, then the quality of your voice is important.

The next time you hear someone so outraged that they are completely out of control, notice how their voice becomes high and jagged, their breathing shallow and erratic, their speech and logic stupid and their veins popped. Could someone in this stupid-rage red-faced mode change your mind about anything?

Remember that YOUR VOICE IS COMPLETELY DEPENDENT UPON YOUR BREATHING and you have wonderful control of your breathing. Take a second to relax your jaw and tongue, breathe out stale air, relax your tummy and get air deep into your lungs and then let the justifiable anger rip.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

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Breathe Your Way Out Of Bed

The alarm clock pierces your dream!!! Your feet hit the cold floor and you are flying 0-to-60 in six seconds! Your brain, heart and spine are still in deep sleep mode. This shot-from-a-cannon wake-up leaves you vulnerable to back pain or even a heart attack. A jolt of caffeine slaps the body “awake.” If you take meds for heart or blood pressure, it has been many hours since your last pill.

This flying leap out of a sound sleep is acceptable only if Freddy Kruger is coming through your bedroom window.

Allow your heart, brain and spine to wake up naturally. Take three deep slow breaths, eyes still closed. Three deep slow breaths, eyes open. Curl into a fetal position with your knees at the edge of the bed. Push yourself slowly upright with your lower arm and swing your feet over the edge to the floor. Stand up slowly and stretch. It takes only a few extra seconds and you will feel better all morning.

Try this little trick: as you are drifting off to sleep, command the brain to awaken you five minutes before the alarm is set to go off. You need to be almost asleep for this to work. And here is a wonderful bonus: brilliant ideas will bob up from your unconscious for just a few seconds during that SLOW wake-up stage. These wonderful bits of data will dissipate almost instantly and are never even noticed when you fling yourself out of bed as if your jammies were on fire.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Meditation 101

There are so many rewarding and pleasurable meditation practices available. Most have been passed with great care and respect from master to student for hundreds or even thousands of years.

While some practices and exercises are quite involved and complicated, the simplest and most basic of them remain incredibly rewarding and effective. We all meditate at sometime during the day perhaps when we are so absorbed in a book that we fail to notice the fading light. Or when we are so intent on a project that we don’t notice that we haven’t eaten since yesterday. Meditation is a perfectly natural and normal process. If you don’t already have a meditation practice, you might enjoy meditating intentionally as well as accidentally.

I believe your intent and your respect for the process are more important than the specifics of any particular meditation exercise or ritual.

As a starting point – sit up straight (but relaxed) with your hands in your lap. Soften your jaw muscles and your tongue. Close your eyes. Listen to and feel the movement of your breath as it slips in and out of your body. Observe the breath without attempting to control or direct it in any way. Continue for as long as you can concentrate completely on your breathing. Some days you may be able to focus for only one breath. On other days, fifty. The quality of your effort (or effortlessness) is more important than the length of time.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breathing and Creativity

Every child is born an artist. You are an artist. When children are too young and inexperienced to question, they get the message that creativity is some mysterious gift, granted only to a chosen few and certainly not to them! Certainly not to you.

So you probably were ashamed and put away your crayons and never tried again. I will throw up if you say one word about “drawing a straight line.”

Creativity is simply the expression, the language of your unconscious mind, your best and timeless self. Your creative efforts provide insight into your spirit and give you the chance to share that insight. Critical praise and profit are completely separate issues! Praise and profit (or lack of it) should never be permitted to obstruct your imagination and creativity.

When you are next tempted or inspired to sing or dance or paint or write or draw or blow glass or weave blankets or decorate cakes, BREATHE YOUR WAY THROUGH IT. CONSTANTLY AND EVENLY AND DEEPLY AND STEADILY AND QUIETLY – ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT. You have nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Your PROJECT is not nearly as important as your PROCESS. That’s the fun. That’s the joy. Someone old and wise said, “The light is within you. Let the light shine.”

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Protect Yourself From Colds & Flu: Lesson Two

Keep at hand a little squirt bottle of killer goo during cold-and-flu season. Bad bugs adapt to human defenses at the speed of light but hand-sanitizers are at the moment ahead of the game. Never pass up a chance for soap and hot water but gel can protect you between visits to the sink.

The medical pundits don’t all agree on the effectiveness of sanitizers but let’s go with the weapons we have at hand (sorry about that) until something more effective comes along.

Killer goo is especially valuable when you move through shared spaces. EVERY TIME you exit a library, a store, a theater, a gym, a school, an office, the subway, an auditorium, a hospital (duh!) – squirt your fingers with a few drops of clear sanitizer.

Even when you have used the restroom and washed your hands, you have touched many things since you washed, including the exit door – just you and 10,000 other people. You think all 10,000 washed their hands?!

The “exit squirt” is a cheap and easy habit and takes only a couple of seconds while a cold devours a week to ten days.

Be well and breathe beautifully.

Protect Yourself From Colds & Flu: Lesson One