By Jeff Davidson

Breath is fundamental to your ability to function optimally. Phil Jackson, a former NBA player and ultra-successful coach, notes that when he is feeling anxious or out of control, especially during an intense moment in a game, it’s because he is short-changing his breathing in some way. When he focuses on his breath, and gets back to a normal rhythm, he more readily regains control.

If you can control your breathing, you can actually control the beat of your heart and most other symptoms of stress that you experience.

Plenty of Chances

Too often, your internal motor is revving a little too high and you miss the opportunity to take a deep breath. Think about the last time that you had to wait in a line that was moving too slowly for you. Did you fidget and fret because you wanted to be out of there?

If so, you added to the stresses of the day. The next time you’re in any line that is moving slowly, use the opportunity to:

• Take some deep breaths.
• Stand more erectly.
• Envision a pleasant scene.
• Remind yourself about what you have accomplished so far today.

Here are other opportune places to pause, and breath:

1. Before you are about to address a group. I know a fellow speaker who, when about to deliver the keynote presentation to a group of a thousand people or more, will take a couple of seconds before beginning to take in the total surroundings. A moment for panic and terror you think?

Some people revel in the majesty of such an event. When else do you get the chance to stand in front of people and air your views?

Even if you are only speaking to a group of three at work, the opportunity is there. If you’ve never considered this a special time where you could have a “strategic breath,” hereafter, you have many opportunities awaiting you in the future.

2. A plane seat, train seat, bus seat, or cab seat. When you are being transported by others, given that there isn’t undue concern for your safety, you have the wonderful opportunity to pause and reflect.

The odds of your demise while a passenger in a vehicle operated by someone else are extremely slim. In fact, they might be less than the odds of your demise due to collisions with oncoming cars when you are the operator of a vehicle. Use the opportunity of being in motion but not having to steer the vehicle to your best advantage because the longer the ride, the longer you get to pause.

3. Before dinner. Rather than “inhale” your food, stop and reflect how great it is that you are about to eat. Think about how the food is going to taste before you actually eat it. Many people recite a prayer for the “bounty about which we are to receive,” and if that works for you, splendid.

4. During athletic contests. Have you ever noticed that the best foul shooters in basketball take an extra couple of seconds before releasing their shot? The best hitters in baseball stare into the field, get firmly set, and then look at pitches.

In sports, there is an advantage in taking a strategic pause at opportune moments to maintain a higher level of personal control.

5. When getting chewed out. This might seem like the least likely time that you care to pause but if you do so, you are in a better position to defuse inflammatory situations.

When someone is incensed and you are the object of their wrath, by pausing you are able to gain insights that you might not otherwise gain if you jump into the fray. Much of the anger that other people (whom you know) direct at you is self-correcting—later they will apologize for overstepping their boundaries or for having lost their temper.

Moreover, your most appropriate response is not likely to come if you respond in anger. The noted endocrinologist Dr. Hans Selye said that when you’re under stress, you will make the wrong decision.

When you are under verbal attack, it’s likely you’ll say something that you’ll regret. When you pause and rather matter-of-factly reflect on the situation, you have a much better chance of responding in a way that is helpful to all parties.

Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC, is principal, Breathing Space® Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina (www.BreathingSpace.com or Jeff@Breathingspace.com). An author and presenter on work-life balance, he holds the world’s only registered trademark from the United States Patent and Trademark Office as “The Work-Life Balance Expert.”®