As I draw the curtains on the breathing series, I want to leave you with techniques that you can employ to leverage on all the breathing activities you have learnt so far. In this post, I will tell you when to use the rediscovered breathing skills and how to make it a habit.
It is true with all of us that we read posts and series such as this one and go gung-ho over it. We do it while we read the post and probably that’s it. It goes in and out of your mind until the next time you stumble upon it. So, it is important for us to develop habits that help us to remember to breathe and to keep certain triggers that help us remember it.
According to me, you can breathe right on two different tracks. I call them:
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Situational Breathing (Ad-Hoc)
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Habitual Breathing (Regular)
Situational Breathing
At times, you need the extra energy and the push to plonk through your way to achieving the intended. One of the great preparatory activities could be your rediscovered breathing.
Let’s say you are going into giving a seminar or a speech to your colleagues. You need the energy, the power in your lungs and the oxygen in your blood to communicate efficiently and effectively.
So right before you are going into action that involves communication, take five minutes off and breathe, breathe like I have taught you to. You will not only stock up on ammunition that you need, but also be relieved of the stresses that is inherent before standing up in a crowd.
You can employ this technique even before you are due to attend job interviews or before you step into meetings.
Habitual Breathing
Apart from the quick dose of steroid that oxygen can give you before speaking assignments, you need regular doses to keep you fit and healthy.
Here are some things that I engage to remember to breathe every day.
- Signpost in Car
When you step into your car, make sure you put up something that indicates to you that you need to breathe while you start driving. Or simply, you can breathe printed on a sheet of paper and placed on your dashboard.
While you breathe in your car, you are actually taking down birds with a single arrow.
First, you are training your mind to associate breathing while you drive – something that you probably do every day.
Last but perhaps more importantly, whether you live in Sydney or Bangalore, there are drivers around you who drive like maniacs. They act like catalysts in raising your anger meter, and upping your stress levels. By breathing right in your car, you can manage the ill effects brought about by the rogue drivers.
- At Workplace
It is a good idea to have a sticky or a background wallpaper that reminds you to breathe. The same logic goes for your bedroom as well. A colleague of mine who got inspired about breathing has set a recurring meeting every day that takes him out of whatever he is doing and into the world of breathing right.
You can play around with a number of tools to remind you to breathe. Use the ones that suit you well. I have alarms on my iPhone at certain intervals that remind me to breathe. After a while, breathing becomes a habit that needs no reminding. Use my tips until you get to that stage.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this post is the final one in the breathing series. If you have specific requests on this topic that I have possibly missed, let me know. And I will include them here.
