Friday, January 18, 2008

Learning to Breathe

Sounds like a weird title doesn't it? Supposedly, we've known how to breathe since we took our first breaths in this world upon being born. The breathing I'm speaking of are the breaths we need to learn to take when we find ourselves growing frustrated, angry, stymied or just plain pissed. I finally got it yesterday as to how important it is at these particular times to really, deliberately, BREATHE.

I'm a pretty easy going kind of gal, and I can usually let things wash over me without too much getting ruffled. But at work yesterday, I had reached my limit with a particular situation that's been bubbling around in the pot for weeks now...and I truly got mad. Really mad. One step away from downright fightin mad. And it isn't good to get to that point in the workplace...not if you want to keep your job anyway.

And I made myself go outside (into the lovely freezing Missouri winds) and deliberately BREATHE. Deep breath in, slow exhale. Deep breath in, slow exhale. I did that 9 times. I wanted to quit after 5 but made myself keep going through the 9th breath. Guess what?

I wasn't mad anymore. I wasn't even peeved anymore. I looked out over the blue sky, followed the flight of a bird, shoved my hands into my pockets to keep warm, and realized - it really didn't matter. The world wasn't going to suddenly spin out of control, our company wasn't going to nose dive because of this...it needed to be solved, yes. But was it worth getting nutty over? No.

How magickal is that? I went from wanting to punch someone's lights out to wondering what flowers we should plant up at the land - all in 9 slow breaths. I wonder if it will be that easy at tax time? Better plan on 13 breaths for that, just in case.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Niki, aweetie, if you need help at tax time just call me... my mommy taught me well... and i am willing to share my knowledge with those i love for the astronomical fee of.... .... .... a hug.... :)