Three Deep Breaths: Finding Power and Purpose in a Stressed-out World - Hardcover

Crum, Thomas T.

 
9781576753897: Three Deep Breaths: Finding Power and Purpose in a Stressed-out World
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1576753891 ISBN 13: 9781576753897
Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education Ltd, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Outlines a simple stress-reduction technique that can be performed virtually anywhere, sharing a parable about a harried worker who is struggling to balance career, life, and family pressures and who learns how to use breathing to live in the present, think positively, and release negativity and judgment.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Thomas Crum is a popular corporate speaker and is the president of Aiki Works, Inc. His clients include Sony, Disney, Nestle, the United States Air Force, Kaiser Permanente, Washington Mutual, Raytheon, and many others. Tom is also an Aikido master and uses many of the techniques and knowledge from this sophisticated art in his work with clients.

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The First Breath

Hanford Park was unusually empty on this crisp fall morning. They left the car and Angus followed the old man to a little opening among some aspen trees, adjacent to a pond where ducks happily paddled about before they headed south for the winter.

“I am a small, elderly man, wouldn’t you say?”

Before Angus could answer, the old man continued, “And you’re a big strong guy. I want you to lift me up off the ground.”

Now what have I gotten into? worried Angus, checking around anxiously to see if there were any observers.

“Use your legs so you don’t hurt yourself and lift me up.”

Angus glanced at his watch. What possessed me to listen to this guy?

Angus was a good six inches taller and seventy pounds heavier than the old man. He put his hands under the old man’s arms and easily lifted him a foot off the ground.

“Thank you. Now place me back down.”

Angus did as he was instructed, wondering about the sanity of the little man.

“I was right. You’re very strong! Now I’m not going to change anything physically, and I don’t want you to change how you lift. Simply pick me up again.”

Annoyed, Angus repeated his procedures. This time, to his amazement, he couldn’t budge the old man. It was like trying to pick up the front of the old Chevy. Or pulling up one of the aspen trees. It would have been ludicrous to continue trying. This little man had suddenly become like a mountain.

Flustered and challenged, Angus’s competitive instinct took over.

“I wasn’t focused,” asserted Angus. “Let me try that again.”

Angus lifted. Nothing moved.

After a third try, Angus felt his frustration change to curiosity. He nervously looked around the park to make sure he was anchored to reality.

“What happened?” Angus was confused.

“I got centered,” the old man said, as if it were a natural thing.

“I don’t know what that is, but you felt twice as heavy.”

The old man laughed. “Did you see me pour a slab of concrete down my pants? Centering is not about weight. It’s about relationship. If I am separate from this earth, I’m easily lifted off of it. If I am connected to it, ah, then it is the whole earth you have to move.”

Angus wondered who had dropped the hallucinogens in his coffee that morning.

“Now, stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Look straight ahead.” The old man lightly placed his hand on Angus’s chest, and gently pushed. Angus wobbled backwards.

“This is how people are most of the time. Wobbly, at the effect of every little pressure, every little stress, with no center. Right now, you have no center.”

“How do I get one?” asked Angus, his cynicism melting into sincerity.

“It’s a journey,” the old man responded. “It starts in a very natural place: with your breathing.”

“My breathing?”

“Yes. See if you can relax and simply notice your breathing. Put your hands on your belly. Now watch and feel this area. You will notice it is vitally alive! In your natural state you will be breathing deeply from this area. On inhalation your belly will expand outwards. On exhalation the belly will recede toward the spine.”

Angus focused on his belly. Yes, it seemed to be moving. But his mind kept thinking about it rather than feeling it.

“I’m not sure I’m getting it.”

“This is a common difficulty. Most people breathe shallowly from the chest. Simply notice the process without trying to do anything. It’s like watching the ebb and flow of gentle waves on a beach. Try breathing through your nose. It will slow and deepen your breath. It might also help if you listen and follow the internal sound made as you breathe.”

After a few breaths, Angus began to relax and pay full attention to his breath without hurrying.

“I think I’m getting it. But I’m not sure what ‘it’ is.”

Angus couldn’t imagine that simply breathing this way could be so fulfilling. However, he was aware that he rarely breathed this way, deep and full.

The old man smiled.

“That is the beginning of your Centering Breath. When you do deep, centered breathing, breathing with awareness, you will bring vital oxygen to every part of your lungs, particularly the lower lobes of the lungs where the oxygen-to-blood transfer is most efficient. You bring balance and health to your entire nervous system. Continue for another minute or so, with full attention to this Centering Breath.”

After a few moments, Angus became acutely aware of his surroundings.

“Have those ducks been quacking since we got here?”

The old man smiled. “I can see by that question that you’re understanding more about this Centering Breath. It’s not just physical, not just relaxing and balancing the body. It’s also mental, bringing you greater awareness and mindfulness. You are becoming more present.

“Look at those aspen trees. Listen to the ducks. Feel this gentle breeze. Nature is presenting you the gift of its beauty. Breathe all of this in—the oxygen and the experience—all the way to your center.”

As he was saying this, he was lightly applying more pressure to Angus’s chest, but this time, Angus was balanced.

“This is the amount of pressure that made you wobble the first time.”

“No way!” Angus felt like a mountain. “I hardly feel any pressure now! Why? What am I doing?”

“You are becoming centered!” The old man let out another hearty laugh. “You don’t feel the pressure when you are centered. Now take whatever it is you were doing or experiencing—a feeling, an image, a sound—and capture it. Increase it. If it’s a picture, have it become more colorful and vivid. If it’s a feeling, deepen it. If it’s a sound, let it resonate at a higher quality. Simply intend, consciously choose, a more centered state.”

Angus clearly felt more stable than he had for some time, but his doubt overruled him. It can’t be this easy, can it?

“When you are ready, indicate with your hand and I will apply more pressure. I will apply it only gradually.”

Tentatively at first, Angus began to wave in more pressure. Within seconds the old man announced, “Now I’m giving you twice as much pressure. Now it’s three times. Now at least five times!”

Angus was not aware of the increase in pressure. He was too absorbed by the state of calm and presence that he felt. Moreover, he recognized that this feeling was not entirely new. It had occurred many times, in the simplest of moments, throughout his life. Simple images flooded back: he was a young child running through the shallow waves at the beach, or a young adult lying in a sleeping bag watching the Earth turn through the infinite starry canopy above. In those moments of mindfulness, as in this one, his analytical racing mind was less in the forefront of his consciousness, leaving his awareness clearer so the world could appear in the present moment, as it really is, fresh and vibrant. He was captivated by the revelation that he was an integral part of the world, not separate from it.

Centering Is a Journey
That Starts with Breathing

Finally, Angus said softly, “This is hard to believe. And all I’m doing is breathing deeply with awareness and looking...

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Verlag
McGraw-Hill Education Ltd
Erscheinungsdatum
2006
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1576753891
ISBN 13 
9781576753897
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
120
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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