JUST BREATHE

“So taking a page from Thich Nhat Hanh in his article about facing fear, I have added a new wrinkle in my life. When I find myself in the face of fear, I pause. In that pause, I breathe. I take 3 deep abdominal breaths and on each intake I become aware of the depth and gentleness of my breath as I breathe in peace and when I exhale, I let go of judgment, critique, and the monkey mind. I recognize what is happening in the present moment. The fear is still present…I can still feel it…..except this time I am mindful that the fear is not me and that I am more than my emotions and with intention I make a choice to breathe, smile at my feelings, and simply let go. Breathe in, Breathe out.”

This is what I wrote in my blog 2 ½ years ago. I have been working on this ever since. What I have attempted to incorporate was to not just wait until I was facing a fear or being stressed, but to breathe continually through the day where this became my default, not just my go to when needed.

I start and end every day with a period of deep relaxed breathing to fill myself with deep, slow breaths and to reset my system for and from the day.

In the past month, I have had a lot of opportunities to practice this and I have found that in the 2 ½ years since the blog, I am better at breathing consistently deeper and slower. This go round I only had one melt down day where I went into my victim and had the whole world conspiring to make my life miserable. With some focused breathing and reality checks with my support, I was able to bounce back the next day and reclaim the power that I had so readily given away the day before.

Interestingly enough, when I was looking for a song on I Tunes the other day, I found a song, or should say the song found me. It was a redo of a Pearl Jam song done by Willie Nelson and his son…..and the song is called……Just Breathe…….chalk another one up for synchronicity.