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The breath has received so much attention in recent years that it is almost becoming white noise.

“Yeah. Yeah. I know. I just need to take a deep breath. Great. I got it.”

But knowing about breathing and the benefits of breathing doesn’t do anybody any real good unless they actually become intentional about breathing. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Intellectual agreement is just another belief that won’t make much difference to your life. To realize this truth, you need to live it” (The Power of Now, p. 71).

I’m not going to spend any time on all of the various breathing methods. There are many. And they are worth learning and practicing and experimenting with to the point that they become automatic.

But if I could give you one piece of advice, it would simply be this:

When you can’t remember what it is that you’re supposed to remember, just take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. In reality, it doesn’t matter all that much in that moment how you take that breath, other than deeply. You’ll be taking it in deeper than the shallow chest-breathing that most of us do most of the time, which is just the type of breathing that sends signals to our nervous system that something isn’t quite right, which then creates a feedback loop of “not-quite-right” that has us tied in anxious knots and never really feeling like we rest. 

A deep breath changes this whole phenomena and almost instantly begins the process of creating a new feedback loop that changes which chemicals are released into your blood stream, the dosage of those chemicals, and opens up parts of the brain that are associated with resting, relaxing, rehabilitating, creative thinking, wise action, etc., which then affect the whole sense of being in the body, which then sends more relaxing “at-ease” messages into the nervous system and reinforces that it’s okay, you’re okay, and gives you access to a whole new level of inspiration, problem-solving, wisdom, and action that are hard to find (if not impossible) in a state of constant anxiety and stress. 

You don’t need a lot of knowledge. In fact, our thinking minds can’t get us out of the anxiety that is caused by the thinking minds. If so, there are enough smart folks who would have figured out how to be at ease just by thinking about it; but they’re not. They’re stressed and anxious, constantly spinning, and searching for one thing after another that will give them just a bit of respite.

If you can just take a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out. Let it be slow and let it be smooth. Maybe lengthen the exhalation a bit longer than the inhalation.

If you can keep this up for a bit, you’ll notice your body feeling very different. It really has no choice. 

If you notice your thinking mind come online with the list of problems that should be making you anxious, notice your breath. Usually, the breath returns to the short, chest-breathing pattern that then sends the nervous system into a state of heightened alertness again. 

Just come back to breathing deeply.

It’s hard. 

Damn hard sometimes. 

But it is the simplest and most immediate way to get your life back if you feel like you’re losing it to an anxious mind.

You might need medication just to get to a place where you can feel enough relief to even take those early deep breaths. I don’t know. 

I just know that when I can’t figure it out, my body knows, and specifically my breath knows the way. Breathing in deeply, I receive. Breathing out deeply, I give.  Breathing in deeply, I welcome. Breathing out deeply, I let go. 

It’s simple. Not easy.

But I guarantee that if you develop a practice of noticing your breath and deepening it throughout the day, your life will change for the better. 

Breath is life. 

One of my students recently asked what I do when I find myself activated and can’t remember what to do. What a wonderful question. My response: “What do I do when I can't remember what to do? I breathe. Sometimes, that is all I can remember and it often feels really difficult to take a deep breath when fear is present. But, I know that it will help. A few deep breaths (sometimes more than a few) in and out allows my nervous system to calm down and then I begin to get access to the problem-solving mind where other strategies, wise action, etc. are embedded.”

The benefit of recovering from a brain injury is learning that we are not our thinking minds, particularly when the parts of our brains that are responsible for language and executive function are impaired. At that point, logic isn’t going to get you far. But the breath always brings you home. I experienced this over and over and over. 

The breath brings us home. 

Yeah. It’s a fad. It’s white noise. It’s easy to dismiss and look for the next thing. 

And it’s your most powerful tool for transforming your life and one you have direct contact with and control over if you want it.

Don’t think about it. 

Try it. 

And feel it. 

And experiment with it.

And try it lots of times in lots of different parts of your day. When you wake up, when brush your teeth, when you walk to your car, when you climb the stairs, when you go to the bathroom, when you are sitting at a meeting at work, when you are eating lunch, when you are texting, when you are scrolling social media, when you are watching your favorite show. Try it. Practice. Feel it. And watch what happens.

Peace