001. The Power of The Breath
“Bam! She gets smoked by a taxi.”
This was the ending to the beginning of a story my friend told me on the power of the breath. The story goes like this:
My friend is standing on the corner of a street in New York, waiting to cross. If you’ve ever been to New York, you know that the drivers there DO NOT CARE. They are in a bigger hurry than you are, so you better be careful.
As he’s standing there with about 13 seconds left on the shot clock crosswalk signal. He notices this beautiful girl walk up to the corner as well. She’s about ten feet away, listening to her music with her air pods, and looking down at her phone.
Next thing he knows, without even looking up from her phone, she takes a step out into the street.
At that exact moment, this motorcycle, about to turn bulldozer, BARELY swerves out of the way – clipping her on the arm.
She spins around full circle and without even thinking, starts to cuss out the person who hit her. Mind you, the motorcycle driver is wearing a helmet and the wind is whipping by him so fast, there’s no way he could have heard her.
Not more than 5 seconds into cussing this guy out, BAM! She gets smoked by a taxi.
My buddy doesn’t know much about what happened after that, but unfortunately, he said it was NOT good: Not moving, blood, ambulance.
Now, he’s on his way to talk with a team he was working with at the time. Personally, I would probably be too distraught to talk to a team, but he’s really good at flipping situations like this into life lessons. This one in particular, was about The Power of The Breath.
Let’s replay this situation with the girl using her breath.
She comes up to the street engrossed in her phone
She takes a step out into the street
She gets clipped by the motorcycle
Now, this is the point where the breath comes into play. Instead of getting reactionary and letting her emotions dictate her actions, she uses this as a cue to get control of herself. She steps back up onto the curb, takes a deep breath, realizes she’s okay, waits for the shot clock to hit zero, and then crosses the street.
Impulses are the perfect cue to take a breath
When we have an impulse to let our emotions rule our behaviors, we need to use those times as cues to take a breath and give ourselves a second to get back in control of ourselves.
Stimulus —> Emotional Reaction —> Rational Response
We intake stimuli from the environment via our senses. That stimulus first goes through the emotional part of our brain before reaching the rational part. The breath gives us time to make a rational decision.
When we get that cue from the outside world and want to “react” instead of “respond”, we need to remember that there might be a taxi coming for us next.
6 Ways the Breath Helps Us
Puts you into the present moment
When you find yourself focused on what already happened (the past) or what might happen (the future), take a breath and get present. Our breath, like our senses, is always in the present moment. Remind yourself of what you have to do now in order to be successful. Remind yourself that you can’t control the past and you can’t control the future. All you can control is yourself and what you’re doing right now.
Allows you to check in with yourself
Imagine you are dropping a pebble in a lake. The ripples move outward in perfect circles. Use that same image as you fill up your lungs. The air is filling your lungs up by pushing outwards on each wall simultaneously. Take a big deep breath in through your nose, and slowly release, back out through your nose. One more time, breathe in… and breathe out.
If you missed that, try again. Take a big deep breath in through your nose, and slowly release, back out through your nose. One more time, breathe in… and breathe out.
Now on these next few, use them to check in on yourself. How are you feeling? Do you have any tension anywhere in your body? Notice it. Is your mind racing? Notice that too. Use these breaths to check in and see where you’re at physically and mentally.
Gives us control
Remember, the breath helps give our brains time to make a rational decision. Breath control leads to emotional control which leads to self-control. When we respond to situations by focusing on what we can control, that decreases and helps relieve anxiety, irritation, frustration, and negativity by putting the situation back in our hands. At the end of the day, we control our thoughts. No one else. Our thoughts become our actions, actions become habits, habits become our destiny. Want to change a habit, start by getting control of your breath.
Breath Control —> Emotional Control —> Self-Control
Releases us from negativity
Think about the last time something “bad” happened to you. Maybe you did bad on a test. Maybe you were criticized wrongly by your boss. Maybe your friend sent you a text or you received an email from somebody, and you were reading too much into it. When associated with a physical action like clapping our hands, our breath helps us release that “bad” experience and helps us to get back to the present moment.
Try it out.
Next time you’re mad about something, clap your hands, take a deep breath, and say, “F*** it.” It helps to release us emotionally from the event and move forward with deliberate – intentional – attention, energy, and focus.
Moves you into your ideal performance zone (IPZ)
Your IPZ is where you operate optimally. Imagine a scale 0-100. 100 being you are bouncing off the walls with energy and zero being you are so calm, that you might as well be sleeping. Between what numbers do you think you perform your best?
For example, a golfer I work with said she performs best between 35 and 45, while another golfer said that he performs best when he’s up between a 65 and an 80. Remember, this is YOUR IPZ – no one else’s.
Getting Into Your IPZ
If you’re below our IPZ, you might take an energizing breath. There are three types of energizing breaths.
When you forcefully breathe in. Try an energizing breath by forcefully breathing air in through your nose.
When you forcefully breathe out. Try to forcefully blow the air out your mouth.
Hold your breath. By holding your breath for a short period of time, you increase your heart rate.
These three different techniques can help to increase your energy level and drive you into your IPZ.
If we notice we’re too amped up or too excited and we’re above our IPZ, we might take some slower breaths to help lower ourselves back into our IPZ. This can be done by breathing out for a longer period of time than we breathe in. Try this next time you find yourself TOO hyped up. Breathe in for 6 seconds. Hold for 2 seconds. Breathe out for 8 seconds. This is called a 6-2-8 breath.
Helps “Flip The Switch”
Imagine you walk into a dark room and you flip the light switch, what happens? The lights come on.
Now imagine you’re walking out of the room and you hit the switch back the other way, what happens? The lights turn off.
This is the same thing a properly trained breath can do. It can help us flip the switch in our brains from “on” to “off”. In other words, it can help us flip the switch from thinking to trusting. It can help us flip the switch from conscious to unconscious. How many times have you ever found yourself thinking too much or not have the ability to shut your brain off? Most times, this might happen at night while you’re trying to fall asleep, but it can also happen before we’re about to perform as well. By consciously training our breath, it can help us turn our brains off and allow us to perform.
The Best Way to Train Your Breath
Have you ever heard the quote, “Those that don’t have time to meditate for 5 minutes, need to meditate for an hour?” Well I have news for you. Everyone has time to meditate for 5 minutes (especially if you’re reading this on your phone).
The average American checks their phone 49 times a day. If every time you checked your phone, you took a deep, conscious, intentional breath that took you a little over 6 seconds, you would be taking 5 minutes of intentional breaths.
Don’t React to Life, Respond to Life
Use your breath to bring you back to the present moment, check in, get control, release negativity, move into your ideal performance zone, and flip the switch. Train it with one of the strategies I’ve provided. The Power of The Breath might just save your life one day.
Bonus Story
When I was 7 years old, I went camping with my family. I had the pleasure of sleeping next to my dad. We zipped a couple of sleeping bags together to make a big one.
Halfway through the night I woke up shivering.
My dad told me to get control of myself as he not-so-lovingly tapped me on the side.
I said “I can’t. The shaking is UNCONTROLLABLE.”
What seems like yesterday, he sits me up, looks me straight in the eye and says, “Take a DEEP breath.”
So, I did.
In through my nose.
And out through my mouth.
He then said, “Look, you stopped shivering. Use your breath to control your body.”
My dad was far ahead of his time with this life lesson.
