Let me be realistic here with you, though I have been this entire time already. You need to create a vision for your life and business that is actually compelling to you. Something you can stick to, even if it’s just short term. You need to have goals regularly that you can achieve and also goals that you work towards. You should align your vision with your value and passion.
This will help you to wakeup with purpose each morning, ready to tackle the day and achieve your goals, even if it’s just one step at a time. This vision will help you to overcome any obstacle that happens to pop up in the way of your path to righteousness. It will help you to stay focused and on the right track.
Whether you’re already employed at a job, or you’re working for yourself. Even if you’re trying to align yourself with what’s happening in your personal life, the vision should apply across the board. You need to have an exciting vision in order for you to truly feel like you have purpose in life.
With that excitement comes another challenge…
How do you contain your excitement and align your goals so that they don’t end up overwhelming you with long nights and weekends working? I know that the feeling of overwhelm from finding direction and balance in life can be a good thing and also a bad thing. If you truly find the right thing and get your focus in line, it can create a level of “good” stress. Which will fuel your motivation and keep your passionate towards bettering yourself.
The problem with this is that too much too quickly can result in unnecessary stress in the form of a tight stomach, a more heavily beating heart, and so much more. Have you ever actually taken notice to the way that you body reacts to your different forms of excitement or stress, whether good or bad?
Some of the energy is good, but it needs to be channeled in the right ways and then utilized only when you need it to give you that extra boost. Alright, so with all of that said, the following tactic is an incredibly powerful way to actually channel that energy.
Our focus here should already be to create positive stress and levels of excitement. So now you should channel that energy to become more productive and reduce the general “wear and tear” that this sense of excitement can have on your body. So, what does this special trick consist of?
Simple… breathing technique. Now before you laugh, which isn’t a bad thing, just bare with me here. When we feel stressed, our breathing usually becomes shallower. We tend to start breathing faster and less deep, and then ultimately only use roughly 20% of the oxygen in our lungs.
The result here is actually two-fold:
- You only circulate a very limited amount of the oxygen that’s in your body.
- Your body goes into “defense mode” because of the shallower breathing which is often a signal of danger to our natural instincts.
To combat that scenario from fully taking over, you can simply try to stop what you’re doing for just a few seconds. From there, just start breathing deep full breaths by inhaling slowly and rising (or puffing) your belly or chest out.
Put your hand on the top of your stomach and feel as it rises up and down. Breathe deeply, and slowly for about 10 seconds or so. Doing this sends signals to the body that the “coast is clear” and everything is okay. This will allow you to hopefully take better control of the situation before it gets the better of you.
In turn, you’ll be able to maintain in your high-productivity zone of focus and direction. The zone in which you can actually clearly think and act rationally towards situations.
At this point you may be thinking about how stupidly easy this is. And yes, it is!
Since you know what the “10 second tactic” now consists of, let’s practice it right now just for review.
- With your hand (or hands) on your stomach, breathe in. Take a deep, long and full breath.
- Watch your hands as they rise up with each breath you inhale.
- Then, watch your hand as it lowers with your exhalation. Let the air out of your lungs without losing your level of relaxation.
- Take another deep breath, and let it out again.
- Once more: in and out. Relax while you do this. Clear your mind.
Now… how do you feel? Like the air is cleared and the sanity has returned? Like a breath of fresh air has entered your atmosphere? It’s a good feeling, isn’t
As you can see, the main way to deal with stress is to address the way it effects your body when it starts to strike. On top of that, you can also combat stress inducing scenarios in your life by being better prepared and have focus towards both your goals and the tasks you have to complete.
I mentioned earlier how you should create a “vision” for your life, and I still highly encourage you to do so. Even short term visions or goals can benefit you. Sorting out your life and giving yourself some direction, while seemingly simply feats, can play a massive role in the overall impact and presence of stress in your life.
Remember, any time you start feeling overwhelmed with your list of tasks that you have to get done, when you feel angry, or when you’re worried about anything that life decides to throw your way – you now have a solution. Heck, even if you’re sitting in traffic, fuming because you’re late for something – you can pause, take a few deep, calm and slow breaths, and re-align yourself with the world.
While the breathing technique and the “vision” creation approach may seem like minuscule things in the grand scheme of life – if you really consider it, a lot of stuff that we do is broken down into tiny pieces.
Think about the habits that you’ve developed, both positive and negative. All it takes is some forethought and effort to implement a breathing session when the going gets too tough to handle. Invest ten seconds into breathing, close your eyes if necessary, and shut the world off. Take a deep breath and start again.
One step at a time, day by day, you can take control of your life. This is just one small piece of the puzzle, but I hope that you’ve gotten some helpful information out of this course. In closing, I wish you all the luck with dealing with the stressors of everyday life, and thank you for your time.
