Just Breathe

For individuals who struggle with maintaining focus, whether it be for work or any other task, and rely on stimulants or extreme measures like cold showers or excessive caffeine intake to achieve alertness, there is an interesting approach that can positively impact your overall health. This technique involves exploring the chemistry of your breathing, bloodstream, and brain. Here's how it works: Find a comfortable position, whether it's sitting or lying down (avoid being near water). Take a deep breath, increasing your heart rate, and then exhale passively, allowing the air to naturally escape your mouth. By repeating this process around 15 to 30 times, you'll intake a substantial amount of oxygen and release a significant amount of carbon dioxide. This alteration in your breathing pattern will result in a change in your internal chemistry, which you can actually sense. You may notice a rise in body and brain temperature, indicating an increase in adrenaline levels. By understanding and practicing this breathing technique, you can effectively enhance your ability to focus without relying on external aids.

A habit is a repetitive set of automatic thoughts, behaviors, and emotions that are acquired through repetition. When something is done repeatedly, the body becomes more efficient at it than the mind. For example, when people wake up in the morning and start thinking about their problems, those problems are connected to memories in the brain. These memories are linked to people, things, times, and places. Since the brain is a record of the past, starting the day by recalling these memories means thinking in the past. Each memory is associated with an emotion, which is a result of past experiences. As a result, recalling these problem memories makes people feel unhappy, sad, or in pain. The way we think and feel determines our state of being. Therefore, starting the day with thoughts and emotions rooted in the past creates a state of being that is also in the past. This means that the familiar past will eventually become the predictable future. If we believe that our thoughts shape our destiny and we are unable to think beyond our emotions, we are essentially thinking in the past. Consequently, we continue to create the same life over and over again. Typically, people reach for their cellphone upon waking up and engage in various activities such as checking messages, emails, social media, and news. These actions make them feel connected to what is known in their life. They then proceed with a series of routine behaviors like getting out of bed on the same side, going to the toilet, having coffee, taking a shower, getting dressed, and driving to work using the same route. They encounter the same people who trigger the same emotional responses. This routine becomes ingrained like a programmed behavior, causing them to lose their free will to the program. Consequently, the cycle becomes a subconscious program, and by the age of 35, approximately 95% of who we are is a collection of learned behaviors and emotional reactions.

There is a lot of discussion about the connection between our thoughts and emotions. Different people prioritize either their thoughts or emotions. Some individuals rely heavily on their thoughts, largely influenced by their education. On the other hand, there is a significant portion of people whose emotions are ahead of their thoughts. In certain situations, we may find ourselves caught in unwanted emotions, yet our thoughts continue to lead us in that direction. It is important to recognize that thoughts are agile and can quickly change. Today, we may think someone is wonderful, but if they do something we dislike, our thoughts immediately label them as unworthy. However, emotions are not as adaptable; they take time to shift. This can create internal conflict when our thoughts say one thing, but our emotions remain entangled. Attempting to control our thoughts or emotions is counterproductive. By resisting them, we only stimulate their multiplication within our minds. Instead, it is beneficial to observe these thoughts and emotions without resistance. Understand that they are merely recycled memories that keep resurfacing. Although they may be bothersome, maintaining a slight distance and viewing them as such can be helpful. Consider the analogy of being stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the airport. Remember the anxiety and struggle you experienced, but when you look back from the airplane, the traffic jam appears insignificant due to the distance. Similarly, practicing a little detachment from our physiological and psychological processes can provide a fresh perspective on our thoughts and emotions. Rather than attempting to tackle each individual thought and emotion, a simpler and more powerful approach is to combine three elements: our breath, our thoughts, and our awareness. When used in the right combination, these ingredients can greatly enhance our ability to control our minds and bodies. This practice can be so transformative that it may even make us appear superhuman to others.