We live in an era of busyness and accelerating change and all too often when faced with a stressful and difficult situation, we respond in counter-productive ways. This can be remedied by a very simple technique which I call Blink of a Breath.
Here is how it goes. As soon as we notice that we are about to get triggered, we internally pause everything and breathe slowly for a few seconds. It is a little like pressing the <<pause>> button on our remote control and have a mini inner-massage.
It is better to start with an exhale – a sort of sigh to empty our system of the stale air – and then take a slow and full in-breath through our nose with an inner smile. Finally, we can exhale as slowly as possible all the air through our nose – relaxing our face, shoulders, lungs and belly following our breath like the light of a scanner. We are now ready to resume slow normal breathing and to start thinking with a fresher head about what options we have and what the most appropriate decision/action to take.
It a very simple technique and we probably instinctively all know about it, yet it is amazing how often we forget to put it into practice. Taking just a few seconds to pause and breathe allows us to make better decisions and consider our actions before we take them. It is also a great way to alleviate our stress while learning the art of thinking on our feet in a blink of a breath.