30 Days to a Better Us - Day 5: Take a Breath
Five days of self-improvement...good on you, girl! Today you get to reward yourself by breathing. What? I’m doing that right now, how in the world is that a challenge? More importantly, how is breathing an exercise in self-improvement?
Cambridge Dictionary actually defined the term “take a breath” as: to take a pause. A pause, misses, a moment of quiet for our busy minds to rest. With 178,000 tabs open in my brain at any given time, it is a relief to know that I can create a space where the screen of my mind can go blank. Like the feeling of satisfaction you get when clearing an etch-o-sketch...don’t you want that for like five seconds? I want that.
Kevin Cashman wrote a book, The Pause Principle, and in it he shares that taking a breath gives us the space to step back and reflect so that we can then move forward with greater clarity. Get this though...with greater clarity AND impact. Taking a breath can make our next move a power punch! Within a matter of seconds, we can stop moving, solve problems, experience an aha moment, gain some perspective and find the will to carry on? Breathe, people breathe!!
When I shot the lesson for this, I was breathing on camera and realized that every breath I took was either full of thought, or distracted by a sound or I forgot to exhale. Seriously, who does that? Must not be as simple as we first assessed, but if we master it, it could become our very own super power. A skill we can leverage as we continue to attack the #SummerReboot challenges this month. Imagine being able to destress, diffuse and decompress all in 30 seconds...yes girl, I got you.
Today, we are going to learn to STOP:
Stop - quit moving. Take a breath - and really focus on that breath. Observe - what is happening in your head, your heart, your mind? Don’t think about it, just take note. Proceed - re-adjust whatever needs to be re-adjusted and carry on!
If we could discipline ourselves to do this 3x/day for :30 seconds, we could lower our stress, clear our mind, gain some insight/perspective and begin to relax. Do you know how bad stress is for the skin?! Your girls worry lines are beginning to rally and holler for some Botox.
So, this is our challenge today...to STOP, take a deep breath...power your limbs and rule the day. Set the alarm on your phone for :30 seconds, stand in your closet and just breathe. I can’t wait to hear what million dollar moments occur in the power of your pause. Click here to tell us about your STOP experience.
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