Quick Response

Practice this exercise until you can react without thinking, without hesitation, as if you were handling your car in a skid. Reading about a skidding car will not keep you out of the ditch. In an emergency your body may not have time to phone your brain for instructions and this is a first-response exercise. It therefore requires more practice than most.

1. In the very FIRST split-second of a real or perceived crisis (physical, emotional or intellectual) BREATHE OUT IMMEDIATELY. Release as much air as is comfortable. Relax all surface tension as you exhale. Think of suddenly releasing all air and tension from a balloon.
2. After that important first exhalation, assume deep and steady breathing. Now you are focused. You are clear. You are ready. You have some oxygen in your tank.

The tendency when things get dicey is to hold your breath or take in a big gulp of air without exhaling first. This forces the incoming air down on top of stale air, air that was used up and waiting to be exhaled. You are left with a small voice, tense muscles, and an expanded chest full of useless air. This is not what you need in crisis mode.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Coping With Predictable Stress: Rehearse and Anchor

Rehearse and Anchor is a deceptively simple yet powerful exercise that will serve you well for the rest of your life. For those scheduled, potentially stressful events such as colonoscopies, wedding toasts (I don’t mean to equate those two), job interviews, ski jumps, birds-and-bees discussions with your kids (I don’t mean to equate those either) – VISUALIZE AND BREATHE.

Since we are dealing with a predictable scheduled situation here, you have plenty of time to rehearse in advance. The time just before you drift off to sleep is an especially powerful time to set new paths in the brain. Like any other practice, the more you rehearse, the better.

See yourself moving through the event easily IN GREAT DETAIL. As you visualize, keep your entire body completely relaxed and your breathing deep and slow and steady. Don’t be concerned if the details you imagine turn out to be slightly different when the time comes. You will have mapped the ideal response into your brain and that will serve you well. The steady breathing is essential because it carries the positive images into your neuromuscular memory.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Link: Hill and Valley Breathing

After The Crisis

Slowing down your rapid breathing is like pumping your car brakes to come to a gradual, controlled and safe stop. If you are racing to catch a bus you will, of necessity, breathe hard and fast for the moment because your body demands that extra measure of oxygen. However, if you find your heart racing when you are doing nothing at all, it is time for a chat with your doctor. Rapid breathing to accommodate activity is part of your inherited innate fight-or-flight ability to survive.

Unfortunately, there are so many aggravations and pressures in your professional and personal life that, too often, the body sometimes can’t perceive that the actual crisis is over. Your muscles remain tense for hours and your breathing stays shallow and fast. Eventually the brain accepts rapid shallow breathing and residual tension as the norm!

This unproductive post-crisis tension screws with your body’s chemistry. Eventually the system that was designed to protect you begins to eat you alive.

As always, change begins with awareness. This week, pay attention to how your ribcage expands. How fast are you breathing? How do you breathe when your supervisor is talking to you? How do you breathe when the line in the bank is moving too slowly? How do you breathe when a stranger is rude to you? Your homework this week is simply to BE AWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOUR BREATHING.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Insomnia, Impatience And Wasted Time

WASTED TIME is actually FOUND TIME. Such fragments actually add up to a potentially productive total by the end of your week if you prepare ahead of time.

In ADVANCE select a couple of your favorite breathing exercises that don’t require a lot of movement. Actually, deep slow steady breathing will do or you could simply begin by counting your breaths.

Since there never seems to be enough time to practice mindful breathing, meditation or contemplation, planning ahead will help you do something useful during those unscheduled disruptions of your schedule. You will be taking charge of the situation and using your time wisely.

So when the bus is late, when the elevator is slow, when you are on “hold” for days, when you are stuck in gridlock, launch one of your pre-planned breathing exercises and be grateful for the luxury of that rare bit of found time.

Otherwise, you will trigger stress chemistry that squirts into your body and your time will be worse than wasted.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Coping with Unscheduled Stress: First Response

A stressful event pops up like a shark in your guppy tank without any advanced warning. It is possible, however, to practice in advance how to best handle this “shark” so that you handle the situation as well as humanly possible.

Remember that THE WORSE THE SITUATION IS, THE MORE IMPORTANT YOUR BREATHING BECOMES. Repeat after me! THE WORSE THE SITUATION IS, THE MORE IMPORTANT YOUR BREATHING BECOMES. This is not the time for you to be holding your breath or shallow breathing. Practice First Response until you can react without thinking, without hesitation, as if you were handling your car in a skid. Your body may not have time to phone your brain for instructions.

First Response

1. In the first split-second of a real or perceived crisis (physical, emotional or intellectual) immediately BREATHE OUT. Release as much air as is comfortable. Relax your shoulder as you exhale, letting go of all surface tension. When you grab a big gulp of air without exhaling first, you force the incoming air down on top of stale air, air that was already used up and waiting to be exhaled which leaves you with an expanded chest but not enough oxygen.
2. After that first release, assume normal slow and deep breathing. You are focused. You are clear. You are ready. Remember that your breathing bridges mind, body and spirit so it is a quick way to pull yourself together in a hurry.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Chronic Stress: When Good Systems Go Bad

CHRONIC STRESS is a huge, spiky, scaly, drooling monster that lurks in the shadows, waiting to drop a whoop-ass load of damage onto your physical, emotional and intellectual self. You are designed to manage short bursts of stress quite easily but you are simply not designed to carry that load 24/7.

The Stress Monster thrives not so much on circumstances AROUND YOU but on the habits and attitudes WITHIN YOU. Stress loves to make you old too soon and sick too often.

Simply put, we poison ourselves with our own stress chemistry.

Hiked up adrenaline reactive behavior is an essential part of our survival but turning it on unnecessarily or forgetting to turn it off can be more dangerous than the original threat. GET THROUGH IT AND GET OVER IT.

Anticipate the situations that trigger anger, worry and fear. Prepare for them IN ADVANCE. Always keep a couple of favorite relaxing breathing exercises in your hip pocket and defuse this sucker before it kills you!

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Hissing Breath

You may occasionally feel too scrambled to begin meditation or subtle breathing exercises immediately. That’s OK. On those truly crazy days it’s best to apply the brakes slowly and ease yourself gradually out of maximum stress into calm.

Let’s explore an INTERMEDIATE exercise that can help you STEP DOWN GRADUALLY from your hectic day. The more scattered you feel, the more important meditation and breathing exercises become to your mind, your body and your spirit.

The Hissing Breath gives you helpful AUDIBLE feedback. Later we will work on a few meditation-in-motion exercises that give you VISUAL feedback. Because you have had a particularly tough day it is especially important that you go about this exercise without pushing or forcing.

1. As always, empty first. Then inhale slowly and easily through your nose. Fill comfortably.
2. Send the air out as you make a long even hissing sound. . . hissssssssssssss. Empty comfortably without forcing. Almost immediately you will feel your systems slow down.
3. Continue as long as you remain focused and comfortable.

Remember that you never allow any discomfort (mind or body) with any breathing exercise. If the really long slow hissing out breath makes you a little light-headed, then try breathing out by making a “shhhhhh” sound. This moves the air out a little more quickly.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breathing: Your Guardian Angel

YOUR BREATHING IS THE SHARPEST ARROW IN YOUR QUIVER!

Is your body threatened? Use your breathing.
Is your mind overwhelmed and scrambled? Use your breathing.
Is your spirit in danger? Use your breathing.
When you are in ANY kind of trouble, turn to your breathing ALWAYS and IMMEDIATELY.

Remember that mindful breathing bridges your mind, body and spirit and gives you clear access to each. It also brings all three into a sharp clear single focus so, almost instantly, you are as good as you can be at any particular moment.

Back when we were cave people, we would freeze-frame, in hopes that the tiger-of-the-very-long-teeth would not notice us standing there by the light of the silvery moon. That was then and this is now.

How then should we breathe now when we are scared witless? DON’T GET FANCY. Just keep your breathing moving, slow and deep and steady. Let your tension dissipate with each exhalation. Your body will be ready. Your mind will be focused and your spirit will give you guidance.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

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.

Inescapable Stress

You can avoid, prevent or escape most of the frustrating and stressful situations in your personal and professional life. There are, however, some situations you simply cannot walk away from. Since chronic ongoing stress poisons the body and scrambles the thinking, you need to find reasonable ways to get through tough times.

1. Take the time to examine a stressful situation that you can’t escape. Are you truly stuck or have you simply not had the time to explore your options? There are always organizations and support groups out there that offer guidance. You are not alone. Everyone is overwhelmed at some time in their lives.....even the smartest, the richest and the wisest. Google is a blessing when you need to find guidance and moral support.
2. This is not the time for you to skip your own mental and physical health, regardless of how much you are on overload. Your mind and body are at risk and you are especially vulnerable now. Keep mammograms, chest X-rays and flu shots high on the agenda. Quiet time is essential even if it is only a few minutes.
3. There is an ancient phrase that comes up in yoga studies: “This too shall pass.” Never lose sight of yourself on the other side of this situation.
4. Remember that mindful breathing ties together the best of your mind, body and spirit. It is always handy! Turn to your deep, slow, quiet breathing while you are in the midst of the struggle. Amazingly the response takes only a couple minutes. Sometimes your newfound calm alone will alter the situation around you.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breath-counting and Pain

It is natural to tense up when something hurts or even when you THINK something is going to hurt Eeeerp! He snapped on that disposable glove! That thing looks reeeeally sharp! When you’re hit with a shock of pain, your primitive fight-or-flight syndrome kicks in, but too often you are unable to EITHER fight OR flee so you lock down!

When you are in pain, notice how quickly you begin to shallow-breathe or worse yet, hold your breath until your ears ring. Unfortunately, tension obstructs blood flow and oxygen delivery and that, in turn, intensifies the pain.

Counting each exhalation is a simple and effective exercise that will help keep your mind and body relaxed. Our goal here is to keep the pain to an absolute minimum. The exhalation is the natural release and “letting go” phase of every breath cycle so it makes sense to work with your exhalation to ease your tension. A fair portion of your “hurt” is due to physical tension and psychological apprehension. The hurt is bad enough without embellishing it?!

COUNT TEN SLOW STEADY EXHALATIONS and then begin again with ten more. Continue counting in sets of ten until your body is as relaxed as possible.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Worst of Times. The Best of Times

We are sinking into a bad-news swamp - Bernie Madoff, Robert Stanford, Citicorp, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Freddie and Fannie. Vital rain forests vanish, icebergs melt, toxic waste oozes, oceans turn into dead zones, and our kids look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy . . .

On the bright side we are gaining new and extraordinary personal power.

We are learning that our brains can be improved until the day we die. Previously it was assumed that the human brain slides steadily downhill into the age pit, can’t be retrained and is about as malleable as a doorstop.

We are learning how to PREVENT disease instead of waiting for those terrible telltale symptoms. We finally understand how to improve our odds against type II diabetes, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis.

Thanks to the Internet you can become a smart partner with your personal medical team. YOUR REACH IS GLOBAL AND AFFORDABLE.

Today we can PREVENT countless cases of lung cancer. We have the capability to spot the disease early. We have access to extraordinary medical treatment and surgical talent. At last we have the power to hold corporations accountable for the harm they do. Our parents and grandparents never dreamed of such possibilities.

The Market will rise and fall. It always does. Institutions will rise and crumble. They always do. But today you have greater power than ever over your physical, intellectual and spiritual evolution. That power will only get better.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Kiss Shy Goodbye. Well, Almost.

Someone said that shyness is the result of focusing too much attention on oneself. The trick is to break the old cycle of nervous anticipation and response. Remember that your breathing is your guardian angel and is ALWAYS there for you.

IN ADVANCE OF SHY-TIME, DROP YOUR BREATHING INTO YOUR LOWER LUNGS AND SLOW IT DOWN.

Decide ahead of time that you will hold onto that breathing speed and placement NO MATTER WHAT. Nothing to lose here! You can always return to palm sweating pulse-pounding misery if the breathing focus doesn’t work. No matter how awkward things may get, never once lose your focus on your breathing.

You (yes, you) have the capability of bringing light, laughter, joy and serenity to any space or any group. You may be shy because somewhere, sometime a long time ago, someone accidentally or intentionally convinced you otherwise. Perhaps the focus could shift to what positive energy you can BRING to a space, what joy can you BRING to a group.

Imagine that you are an artist and that you will focus on “artist” things like how many red ties are there in the room, who has the nicest smile, who has the saddest face. Or imagine that you are a reporter and that you need to come away with at least one good story. Of course, don’t TELL people you are an artist (unless you actually are).

Be well. Breathe beautifully.