BREATH? REALLY?

At first, many business people I work with are pretty skeptical when I mention ‘the breath’.  Then they experience how dramatically their impact on others shifts – when they simply take the time to sense their own breath. This is a simple, and seemingly magical shift… from looking for all the answers in your intellect to having access to to ALL your intelligence – intellectual, emotional, intuitive and physical.  We are, after all, physical beings.  And when we are attempting to communicate with one other, our bodies, our voices, our eyes, even our skin are communicating far more deeply and immediately than the words coming out of our mouths.  It would benefit us, then, to have a sense of ease and command of these parts of ourselves.  All too often, the stress of an important meeting or a big presentation has the body, the voice, the eyes… our presence in general… communicating a very different message from the one we intend.

How to get all these things back within our reach? The breath.

And not a complex breath exercise that’s another thing on your ‘should learn to do better’ list.  Simply by paying attention… and letting your breath come and go – on its own.  That’s it.  Try it for yourself.  Tomorrow, when you get to your desk, take two minutes for this experiment.  Before you pick up that phone, or tackle the first email, put your attention to the physical sensation of breath movement in your body – you might feel your belly or your chest or your ribs move with each breath cycle – inhale, exhale, pause.  Let three of those breath cycles come and go on their own, simply paying attention to the SENSATION of the breath movement.  Out of your head…into sensation.  Don’t DO anything.  Just for a minute!  Then see how easy that phone call is.  Or how quickly the email gets handled.

This just might be a new ‘simple tool’ in your arsenal to help you handle that next tough meeting.