Breathe
Remember to breathe.
Catch your breath.
Focus on your breathing and remember whatever is happening right now is NOT forever. Nothing you have done in your life has been forever. Everything we experience in our lives is temporary. This moment you are worried about will pass. Just breathe. One thing you can always control in any situation is your breathing. One thing that can always calm us down is breathing.
Such a simple concept yet so many people forget about it. Breathe and focus.
Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. There’s a great technique of counting your breath to distract yourself from whatever is going on. You count in 4 on the inhale, hold for a count of seven, and then let go of a big breath out the mouth for a count of eight. This simple counting technique has saved me from saying things I know I would later regret. This technique has allowed me to slow down and process through the anger I sometimes feel.
Sometimes it just takes nineteen seconds to calm down. Sometimes I have to do this a few times over before I am calm. Sometimes I have to do this with my eyes closed in a safe place to feel like the effects of this practice working. I do this to calm down before I react in a way in which I do not wish to react. When I am calm I am acting from a place of love. When I am fired up mad, oh you better watch out, my place of anger and negativity is strong it wants to rip out and destroy all the positive work I am doing. Fight the urge. Breathe. I know my place of positivity is where I want to react from. Sometimes I just need to catch my breath in order to get back there. Slow down, focus, and breathe.
I admit I was once a very negative person. Every part of my life was negative. I wasted a lot of years being mad at temporary situations that I chose to drag around forever. I could not let go. I carried around a lot of past baggage. I relived moments that should have been temporary over and over again trying to figure out how I could fix them. You cannot fix the past. You can let go and learn how to deal with temporary situations in better, healthier ways. Always be willing to learn. Deep in the depths of my negativity, I never cared about breathing. I lived life in the fastest lane I could find. I didn’t care if I was dead or alive. I wasn’t kind and I wasn’t calm.
Shifting to positivity was not easy for me, being negative came easy to me. I did it for so many years it came naturally. Being positive was a struggle. Learning to breathe helped me battle negativity. I knew change was necessary. I knew I had to change every part of my life. I realized when I am angry I hold my breath. I was unable to even let my breath go.
When you start to get upset how do you react? How do you breathe?
Soon as I can feel my anger or negativity rising up in me I immediately focus on my breathing. If I can get through the next few seconds I can remain calm. Sometimes when I close my eyes I do a little visualization to go along with the breathing. Bring myself back down. Remain calm and react from a place of love.
Before you think this works for me every time. No, it does not. I am not perfect. I am a work in progress. No one is perfect we are all just doing our best. I simply catch my breath, focus on my breathing and I do my best, and if you best isn’t good enough fuck it.
Breathe, focus, calm down and react from a place of love, kindness, and positivity. Slow down and focus on your breathing before reacting. You cannot take back words or actions. Find your breath find your calmness.
Breathe in the positive thoughts and breathe out the negative thoughts.