What is stealing your breath?

I saw the question in Valerie Reiss' post on Belief.net. "What makes you hold your breath?" What a great question! We talk a lot about developing an awareness of your breath as a means to improved health, performance, and emotional wellbeing, but directing your focus to mentally note the things that steal your breath can be quite illuminating.

For one, notice the sheer number of times during the day and the strange things that cause us to temporarily stop breathing. My laptop is at the top of both lists. There are very few things that you can do on a computer that benefit from holding your breath. Have you ever experienced "email apnea?" I'm surprised at how often I find myself not breathing while doing almost any task that requires focus or concentration, especially when it is computer related. You know what? It doesn't help! And unfortunately, those are usually the moments when you can really benefit from being fully oxygenated and firing on all cylinders.

Secondly, once you start seeing the patterns, i.e. holding your breath before speaking at a meeting, or when dealing with bad traffic or holiday crowds, you can preemptively take a few deep breaths to break the cycle and take control.

Lastly, it allows you to ask yourself what it is about these situations that leads you to hold your breath or feel stressed. Once you shine the light of awareness on these fears and anxieties they oftentimes start shrinking or disappear altogether.

Now that we are in the thick of the holiday season, make it a point to notice the things that are stealing your breath so that they don't interfere or mask the things that take your breath away.

Happy Holidays!