Now, today I want to talk about something that happened the other day as I was talking to a client of mine. I could actually feel it through the video conference they were getting tense. I stopped and I asked him, “Are you breathing?” All of a sudden, you just saw something clear up on them. You saw visually them actually lose about five to 10 pounds of weight. They took a deep breath and just exhaled and they just relaxed their bodies.
What I was talking to them about was a trigger that happened at their work. See they’re a high-level business owner. They run a seven-figure business and they were being stressed out about some of their employees in situations that were going on in their enterprise. Now, when I was talking to about it I could see them getting more and more tense, but I also noticed that they were holding their breath.
This is extremely common. It’s extremely common for us to do it throughout the day. What you’ll notice is actually just by simply breathing or exhaling, in a sense, you actually reduce the stress instantly. It’s an easy and quick fix. And besides losing 5 to 10 pounds in your appearance isn’t a bad thing for most of us.
So what he did is I had him just take him through this exercise; take a second, breathe. Are you breathing? Check in with yourself. And then exhale.
The reason I bring this up is I see this throughout my day as well. Often times running several businesses, coaching clients, raising a son, a family, I’m often times in stressful situations. Even knowing what I know, I find myself getting tense. I get very tense and next thing I know I’m like, “Oh, I’m stressed out,” and I go, “Oh, I was holding my breath.” I was taking shallow breaths.
You see what happens is part of our stress response, as we get stressed our body doesn’t perceive outside stressors, so things that could kill us like a bear, for example, versus internal stressors, so those things that are the environment that we create or take on ourselves. When we do that we hold our breath. We hold our breath in that fight or flight response, and that actually creates more stress. It actually even creates inner- abdominal pressure at times and the inner-abdominal pressure raises our blood pressure and raising our blood pressure a lot of physiological responses happen, which releases chemicals, which also affect your mood and our minds.
Just by simply taking deep breaths, conscious breathing throughout the day, you’ll find that your days become more and more stress- less. Now, that’s not really a word but less stressful is what I’m trying to say. Something you can do is set an alarm. Go to your cellular device, whether it be an iPhone or an android, and set alarms throughout the day. Maybe it’s six or seven alarms throughout your workday. Or if you’re staying at home, maybe it’s six or seven alarms spread out throughout the day. Whatever it is for you, have something relaxing.
Someone told me today, “Listen to Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley, that’ll chill you out every time. So maybe that’s the song you put on for your alarm. It’s completely up to you. But the idea is when you hear that alarm I want you to check in yourself. Check with inside yourself and ask yourself, “Am I breathing fully? Am I taking full diaphragmic breaths? Am I relaxing?” Then if you’re not, do it. And if you are, celebrate it. Either way, don’t beat yourself up. Take that time to actually breathe.
I’m going to ask you, as authors of your own story, take it a step further. This is your own story so I want you to check in with yourself when you’re feeling tense when you’re feeling stressful when you’re feeling anxiety. I want you to just take a second and go, “Am I breathing.” Then take four to five deep breaths in through the nose, relaxed, out through the mouth. I want you to notice if your stress levels diminish if your anxiety diminishes.
I want you to journal about it. Take out your journal, write out what happens. What’s going on with your body, your mind, your spirit, your business? What’s going on in these situations with your relationships? I’d love for you see the power of just breathing.
This is a very simple tip, but like most simple tips it’s also very easy not to do. It’s easy to forget. Putting this into practice is just like anything else, you have to do it more and more often. Like learning a language; if you stop putting it into practice you simply forget.
If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!