Just Breathe

Before you read any further, I want you to take 3 deep breaths, but here is how I want you to do it.

-Sit back and close your eyes

-Inhale through your nose for 2-4 seconds

-exhale through your mouth for 2-4 seconds

Ready go!

Now, how do you feel?

If you’re anything like the athletes and performers I work with, I’m willing to bet you feel a sense of clarity and calmness. Does your body feel relaxed? You might even feel like it’s time for a nap.

I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you control your breath, you control your mind, you control your body.

Breathing is an automatic or unconscious experience, we do it to stay alive. We hardly spend time actually thinking about the breathing process. When we do focus on our breathing it’s usually because we are not (chances are that you’re underwater), when we are exhausted, and when it’s cold enough to see our breath.

When we focus on our breathing, as I had you do above, it helps us quiet our mind or as my friend James Leath says “starve the anxiety”.

By simply counting our breaths, we make the unconscious conscious. What it also does it lets us put pause on the day, clear our minds and collect our thoughts.

There are so many factors in our day that we can’t control and those instances can stress us out, distract us from our task, or even beat us down. During those moments, instead of focusing on the things beyond our control, focus on what you can control. That starts with our breath. We can always control our breath.

So when you feel stressed, anxious, distracted, or even just unsettled. Take a moment, close your eyes, and breathe.

Control your breath, control your mind, control your body.