You’re in control, even if you go too fast. By changing how you breathe you will feel more in power and better equipped for whatever requires your attention most.
The brightest breathing tweet ever
Look at the sparkling tweet below. It’s from the addictive galaxy of short texts. Travelling in that universe keeps us away from killing the notification number of our inbox. And both activities hold us hostage and distracted from that important tripple-A-task in the here and now. Isn’t it the same in your life?
Imagine the following bright-breathing-tweet popping up in your stream: This one must have been posted light years before you see it shine. I didn’t see it coming.
Look up from your screen right now, and take a deep, slow breath. Do it, seriously – it’s good for you.
; Dave Duarte (@DaveDuarte) July 23, 2013
This is why breathing is important
The zest of the tweet reminded me of what Linda Stone insists upon in her body of work on breathing:
How we breathe affects our attention, cognition and even our intelligence. The way of breathing triggers our nervous system. Our body responds with a “fight or flight” mode if we breathe too shallow or hold our breath carelessly. If you recognised the ‘out of control’-feeling about your inbox and streams of status updates, some of you could even be suffering from Email apnea. Stone coined this term for the modern office worker: A disease caused by insufficient air intake through navigating daily e-mail. The signs resemble a body in fear.
And to the rescue… there is better breathing. It influences body responses that include healthy organ functioning, proper digestion, relaxation and other bodily benefits.
A better dad through better breathing
Knowledge about better breathing saved me from panic about my own overdose of sleepless nights in my daughter’s baby year. And since she is growing up, I have other situations that almost blow me away. Sometimes I find her in a so called ‘toddler tantrum:’ Banging her hands and or feet on the floor and screaming without limits. Nothing I control could console her. Until I found out what helps us both. I just sit there and stick to my own breathing before I pick her up. The cut communication lines between us switch to auto-repair as my respiration eases.
As we both go through her motions, she finds her way back into her normal self and I can start checking in with words about her feelings. Her breathing signals me when its time to pick her up, to talk or if it’s better to just go with the flow. I like to imagine that the calmness of deep expiration might signal her ‘all is OK’ and everything is safe. “Whatever works,” the experienced parents would say. Anyway we always seem to reach an intimate, non-exhausting state. By far it seems more natural than daddy ‘sshhhh’-ing everything away. Not to mention the panic free head on my body, serving us both. It’s just a different kind of control than my head tried before…
This is how you make your breathing count
So how do you start your own way of better breathing? In the beginning I programmed my alarmclock to ring at intervals of 120 minutes for seven days (sleeptime excluded) to focus on healthier breathing. I suggest to use the 4–6–8 technique I learned from my dear friend Elaine Rumboll
The 4–6–8 technique.
To stimulate your parasympathic nervous system, associated with repose and reflection:
- Close your mouth & inhale through the nose for 4 counts;
- Hold your breath for 6 and
- Exhale for 8 counts.
(Please don’t hold your breath longer than 7 counts, we’d like you to stay with us.)
As a rule of thumb, exhalation should be twice as long as inhalation.
Some people like to extend the exercise by breathing through the stomach: They lay one hand on the abdomen and the other on the chest. If you see the lower hand moving further out than the upper, you’re properly using a technique called diaphragmatic or abdomenal breathing.
Be a better breather
To remind you there is a better way of breathing, set an alarm on your phone. Each 2nd hour, for the coming day you’ll be reminded that you’re still in control of your breath. No fear. Do this a couple of days and you will be steering your A projects again, instead of fighting the inbox or flying the twitterverse. Give it a go, why not set your alarm right now?
If you feel like it you can repeat this for seven days, try other breathing exercises or change the daily frequency. Whatever makes you a better breather is fine.
And if you feel more on top of it all, next week, don’t forget to retweet Dave’s bright-breathing-tweet.
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