It turns out I like the flurry - tending to stay in motion

Yesterday was a crazy day in my life. I had to complete two vastly different projects. First, I was presenting my "Let's Talk Clouds" workshop at a local middle school.

As the Earth Lady, I work with schools to help students jump-start their interest in science, specifically Earth Science.

Then, I switched gears and released my interactive Tarot reading ebook. As part of the project, I had to finish the programming, create the cover, and upload the entire thing to amazon.

I'm excited about this project because it allows the reader to choose a new card every day from a random selector set. Then, the reader sees the interpretation and a special call to action individual to each card. I've been working on the interpretations for years, but I had never figured out exactly how to create the interactive portion of the book.


And here's how the title of this blog post relates. I didn't try to focus on both projects at once. They are too disparate. As I've gotten older, I've seen the wisdom of limiting multitasking. Although it seems efficient, it isn't. It's a will-o'-the-wisp. It leads you down the primrose path of thinking you are being efficient while all the while your brain is operating at a slower speed and lower level.


Here's what I did do. I completed the workshop with the kids, and I gave it my all. I left it all on the classroom floor, as they say. We had a blast. Their transformation from before the workshop to afterward startled me. They went from post-lunch food coma to shouting about how much fun they'd had in just under 40 minutes. I can't wait to go back.

And after I got home from the workshop, I jumped into the Today's Tarot project. I created the cover. I finished the programming. I uploaded everything to amazon, and I released the entire thing.

It was exciting and energizing. I didn't feel my exhaustion until I was finished. And then I dropped like a stone.

Why did I just write up my entire day for you? Well, it's because I've had a realization. If you work hard, if you commit yourself to excellence on each project, you will succeed. And here's the most important thing. The key to that success lies in maintaining the level of focus and activity on each project while you are working on it. The Law of Inertia comes into play here. "A body at rest tends to stay at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion." If we take a lot of time between projects, we will fizzle out on them. If instead, we rev those engines, blast through the projects with full dedication and focus, and only take the foot off the gas for a bit between them, we will fly. And we will fly because we are already in motion. We are already doing and creating so it becomes easier to keep doing and keep creating.

To refocus my brain on a new project requires almost no time if I do it correctly. I've started taking the time to recharge by doing a quick breathing meditation. It is simple, and the best part? It's only a minute long. I've created a small video of the meditation. The next time you need to recharge between projects, go ahead and try it.

And let me know how it works.

A call to action: Let's take back our calm

So many of us all over the world are feeling squeezed in a pressure cooker.  So, I am calling for a moment of breathing all together. Are you willing?

I invite everyone who reads this to join in and share it wide. 

This afternoon at say five pm (EST)? Who will stop what they are doing and do some military breathing* with me? 

If you want take back your calm, comment here. I will post it live here and guide it. 

Share this if you want. Let's take back some of our calm all together. 

I send you peace. 

Here is the link tot he facebook post where I will be guiding the breathwork

https://www.facebook.com/izolda.trakhtenberg/posts/10153313460779895?ref=notif&notif_t=like

*Military breathing is a stress-reduction technique used by first responders and people in the military to remain calm in high stress situations.

Finding Strength In Weakness

My thoughts this morning turn to finding strength in my weakness.

I was working with clients over the weekend. One of them talked about how he felt weak and that he wanted to go back and be strong how he used to be.

I said, "Wait, don't try to go backward to find that strength. Look forward to the strength you will find as you move through this time of weakness. That is where we find our strength, when we feel the most weak and vulnerable. We have to go through each step, good and bad, in order to find ourselves."

Then, I talked to them about my violin. It is an old instrument, from 1872. I have owned it since I was nine years old. It had a beautiful sound. About 20 years ago, I was walking with it down a flight of stone steps. I stumbled. It fell and cracked. My heart broke along with it. I took it to Violin House of Weaver (now Potter's Violins), which is one of the best Violin Houses in the world. 

"We'll take care of it," they promised. "You won't be able to tell the difference."

I had my doubts but I left it with them. In the meantime, to prepare for upcoming gigs a friend was kind enough to lend me his violin while mine was being repaired.

During that time, burglars broke into our house and stole a bunch of stuff. They stole my friend's violin. We tried in vain to find it at local pawn shops, but we never did. Luckily, we had insurance and while we weren't able to retrieve his violin, we were at least able to get him money for it. I still feel badly about that, but there was nothing we could have done to prevent it.

Meanwhile, my violin was still being repaired. In my heart of hearts, I knew it would never sound the way it had. I knew it would forever be broken, but I waited it out until the day came to go pick it up.

"Play it," the man behind the counter encouraged me.

I ran the bow across the strings and it was magic! The instrument sounded better than it had before.

"How did you do that?" I asked as I put my lovely violin away.

"The glue we use now works with the fibers of the wood on a molecular level," he replied. "It fills the cracks perfectly and then vibrates with them the way the wood itself would. Like a broken bone, where it was shattered will now be stronger than before. You lost monetary value when you dropped it, but you haven't lost the instrument."

I thanked him, and I left. 

It was only much later that I realized that if I hadn't dropped the violin, I would indeed have lost it and sooner than I thought. If it hadn't been in the shop when it was, it would have been the violin stolen when the burglars broke in. Instead, I still have it and played it just yesterday.

So now, when things fall apart, I remember my violin and how the moment it broke was the moment it was saved. 

And then, I breathe.

http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/Documents/health-promotion-wellness/psychological-emotional-wellbeing/Combat-Tactical-Breathing.pdf 

Productivity Tuesday: Feel Free to Forgive Yourself

Sometimes, despite our best efforts to be productive and to complete projects on time, we get overwhelmed. Too many deadlines loom. Too many to-do items beckon. Too much has to be done right this instant.
I just had this happen yesterday. I returned from a weekend away to a mountain of projects that ballooned into emergencies through no fault of my own. I could not get them done no matter how hard I tried. There was only so much of the ten pounds of poop my five pound bag would hold.

I stressed out. Immediately, my stomach clenched, my jaw ached, and my head pounded. I started the hamster-in-the-wheel race to get everything done, but I eventually admitted defeat. I was not going to be able to complete everything on my plate for yesterday. And then, on top of that realization I also heaped on a huge helping of guilt for not being super woman and somehow eking out a miracle. Talk about a double-whammy!

After a couple of hours of this double-whammy of stress and guilt, I took a break. I sat down in my chair. A cat climbed into my lap, and together, we closed our eyes, breathed deeply, and relaxed. I didn't rest for long, but I needed a breather. I needed to center and relax if only for five minutes. And most of all, I needed to release myself from the prison of guilt for not being able to do the impossible. I put down that burden, opened my eyes, and then proceeded to kick butt on everything else I could do for the day.

I'll be honest, I would not have been able to proceed nearly as well or as productively if I hadn't taken those few minutes to unwind and release my guilt. The guilt would have continued to weigh me down. I would have labored under it for the rest of the day and not gotten nearly as much done.

It has taken me something like 40 years to learn that particular lesson. And it is this: Forgive yourself and recommit to the plan tomorrow.

 

Communication Thursday: Just Exactly How Do You Inhale? (part 2 of proper breathing)

In the previous post, we talked about proper posture when standing or sitting to communicate. To recap: stand with your feet hip-width apart (draw an imaginary line from your second toes, through the center of your ankles, the center of your knees and then up to the hip points [the parts that just out to the front]). Stack your spine so that it maintains its natural curvature back to front but is stacked straight up and down from side to side.

To breathe and stand properly, imagine that your belly is a submarine. Now imagine the hollow tube of the periscope going up the spine and through the lungs and up into the mouth. Your mouth then becomes the viewfinder. If a periscope isn't straight and curved where it is supposed to be straight and curved, it won't work. In the same vein, if your spine isn't straight, then the breath won't work, or at least it won't work efficiently.

Now, practice inhaling. Let the breath come into your belly. In other words, allow the belly to expand as you inhale. Imagine a balloon where your organs would be. If you filled that balloon with air (like taking a breath), it would expand. And your trunk needs to do the same thing when you inhale. So, when you inhale, let the lungs expand, and then your diaphragm (the muscle below your lungs) will flatten out and down and will by necessity move the organs below it out of the way to make room. That's why your belly expands on a proper inhale.

The other part of this? Your shoulders have to stay relaxed. If they rise up on the inhalation, you are doing bang-up job of breathing into the top third of your lungs, but you are not getting any air into the lower two-thirds. And in order to breathe fully, the lungs have to be fully or nearly filled. Try another inhale. Did your shoulders rise up? Yes? Well, in that case, we need to bring out the big guns, as they say. 

For this next part, you will want to be somewhere you can comfortably lie down, and you will need a book. If you need to wait until you are at home, go for it. I'll be right here when you come back ...

Okay, now that you are some place where you can lie down, grab the book, and lie down. Lie flat and comfortably. Place the book on your belly and take in a deep breath. Now exhale. Do it again. What happens to the book on your belly when you inhale?

With any luck, you said, "The book rises when I inhale." That is exactly what should happen. The book should rise on an inhalation and it should fall on the exhalation. Take another few breaths and get accustomed to the feeling of the book rising and falling on the inhalations and exhalations. Next, take note of your shoulders. What's happening to them as you breathe while lying down?

What I'm hoping you realize is that they don't move. When you lie down to breathe, your shoulders have no choice but to remain still because they are resting against the floor or the bed, etc. That frees you up to allow the trunk to expand outward properly since the shoulders can't rise. Please remember that when the shoulders rise on inhalation, we are only filling up the top parts of our lungs, and since what we are after is a full breath, we need to remove the shoulders from the equation. The, "Lie down and put a book on your belly," technique is a perfect way to practice that.

Take a few more deep breaths lying down and try to remember what that feels like. Then stand up and try it that way. See if you can maintain that same feeling of keeping the shoulders down and relaxed while the belly expands.* 

Once you have that in your body and are comfortable with it, you will be one giant step closer to breathing fully and deeply. And you will be far more able to breathe properly. The next technique we will discuss will be the exhalation and the supported breath. Now that you know how to inhale properly, next week, we will learn how to exhale and use your supported breath to speak and communicate more effectively.

 *Bear in mind, this sort of deep breathing might make you a little light-headed so be careful as you deepen your breath. If you do get lightheaded, sit down and put your head between your knees until the feeling passes.

They all say to stop and breathe, but how exactly do we do it?

Oh my goodness there are a ton of posts on mindfulness, meditation, and anxiety reduction. Almost all of them have some form of, "stop, be still, and breathe to calm yourself." It's great advice. And it works. The trouble is, how do you stop, be still, and breathe when you might be scared, anxious, nervous, or downright freakin' out?

What are the magical steps? How do you grab onto the focus and calm that lets you take any sort of breath when you are already stressed? And even if you manage to take a deep breath, are you doing it correctly? Will you get the most relaxation bang for your inhalation buck?

Most of us breathe inefficiently. I've taught thousands of people to sing and speak and I've watched them breathe to assess what they are doing and how they are doing it. Almost every single person breathes in such a way that she or he uses up a great deal of energy and motion on the breath but almost never gets the full benefit of either that breath or that energy expenditure.

So, let's take a look at breathing. In these next few posts on Communication Thursdays, we'll go over it step by step, and get you the information you need to breathe deeply and effectively.

We breathe involuntarily. We don't think about it. Some people have to think about it because it's not a voluntary action to them and that must be arduous. Others have breathing issues like asthma, and although this post might be helpful to them, I admit it's not geared towards them. For the rest of us, breathing requires almost no thought. If we aren't sick or having other breathing issues, we breathe easily. However, although we breathe easily, we often breathe inefficiently. And if we want to reap the rewards deep breathing can bring, we must become efficient breathers. With full and mindful breathing, we will reap the many benefits that such breathing can bring.

Let's take the next few minutes together and breathe with purpose. I'll show you how. Stand up (if you aren't already) and take a big ol' breath. I'll wait right here. :)

How did that feel?

Did your shoulders rise up when you inhaled? Did your belly, back, and chest feel tight or cramped? If you don't remember, bring your awareness to your body, take another breath and try to answer these questions. I'll bet you answered yes to at least one of them. If so, then you can improve your breathing.

Did you feel balanced when you inhaled? How did it feel to take that deep breath? See if you can become aware of how you are inhaling and exhaling. Take care if you start to feel a little lightheaded. We are not used to deep breathing and the extra oxygen can make us feel a little woozy. If you start to feel that, sit down, relax and try it again after the feeling passes.

Ready to try again? Good.

Now, let's take the breaths we were taking and make them even better. 

First, let's think about our alignment. Whether we are breathing deeply to sing, speak, address discomfort or just for the sake of these exercises, it is a good idea to maintain good posture and alignment. Let's start from the bottom. 

Our stance is the core of good breath. And a good stance will be to keep your feet hip width whether or you are standing or sitting. So, let's try it. Stand (or sit, if that is what is comfortable for you) with your feet hip width apart. To make sure your feet are hip width apart, stand (or sit) with your feet facing forward draw an imaginary line from your second toe (of each foot), through the middle of your ankle, up through the middle of your knee, and up to your hip points. Hip points are the part of your hip that points in front of you or juts out to the front. It is not the outside of your hips. If you stand with this alignment, you are well on your way to maintaining good posture.

Next time, we will talk about your trunk, shoulders, neck, and head and how to maintain proper alignment in those parts of your body. Once you have proper alignment, we will talk inhalations, exhalations, and every part in between to get you breathing deeply, fully, and effectively.

In the meantime, whenever you must speak, sing, or even just stand for any length of time, try to remember this alignment tip. It will help you stand longer and more easily. 

Until next time, here's a thought on breath.

Keeping Our Cool (Strategies for Maintaining Focus While Competing)

(Over the next few posts, I will look at how to maintain focus while in competition or in other high-stress situations.)

Today, let's talk about breath.

If I have to make a list on how to maintain focus while in the midst of competition, the first item on that list would be to breathe.

Deep, long, full belly breaths have multiple benefits. First, they oxygenate the blood and get a wee bit more oxygen to the brain, which keeps us more awake and alert, and able to think clearly and purposefully. Second, we have more oomph in our muscles. Third, when we focus in on breath, other issues melt away. See, the thing is that conscious breathing requires uninterrupted focus. When you focus on your breath, you have to cede focus on other aspects of what's going on to concentrate on your body's expansion and contraction on the inhalation/exhalation cycle.

Do you want to do that when you are playing a fast-moving sport like basketball? It's a good question. I would say that perhaps in the moment, an athlete has to let his or her body take over and let the muscle memory, instincts, and intuition do what needs to be done (that's where practice practice practice comes in and we'll be talking about that in a future post). Things are moving too fast to slow down, step back and just breathe. However, at the point when that athlete stands at the free throw line and must focus, concentrate, and throw a perfect basket, that is absolutely the time to stop, step back, breathe, focus, create your intention, see your intention becoming reality and then making it so.

So, when things coalesce into the pinpoint reality of "do it now or don't do it at all," of when circumstances converge to the make it or break it instant, that is the perfect moment to stop and breathe. That moment, that pause, that breath is crucial. It allows us a moment to find clarity and peace. Even one breath, consciously done, will give us a second of respite in the middle of whatever maelstrom we face. In that instant, we move or evolve from a being who needs to react to something that's happened to one who is moving forward with more focused clarity and acting on what needs to be changed.

Acting rather than reacting makes all the difference and the breath is what allows us to do that.

So, here's your mission for today. Wherever you are, whatever you face, take a step back and just breathe. Even if your life feels like it's careening out of control, stop, step back, and breathe. 

Here's how you do it:

If you are sitting, sit up straight. Make sure your feet are flat on the ground and about hip width apart (The way to tell if they are hip width apart is to run an imaginary line from your hip points [the jutting front part of your hip bones] down the center of your knee and through to your second toe. If that line is straight, your feet are hip width apart.)

Let your back have its natural curve but don't slouch or arch your back.

Put one hand on your belly right below your bellybutton. 

Take a deep breath. Note if your shoulders have raised as you inhaled. If they did, exhale and inhale again and try to keep your shoulders relaxed and down.

When you inhale, imagine the air that is entering your lungs is moving all the way down into where your hand is cupping your belly. You might feel the belly and your hand expand as the breath expands your torso. 

Now, exhale and feel your belly come back in and your body contract.

Do this a couple more times to get the hang of it.

When you have that part, put your other hand on your side above and to the side of your bellybutton. Keeping your hands on your body, take another deep breath. 

This time you will feel your belly expand and additionally, once your belly has expanded, keep breathing in until your feel your sides expand as well. When you feel that, exhale and imagine your side is contracting (you might even feel it) and then let your belly contract as you breathe out.

Do that a couple more times to practice it.

You will want to get to the point where you can stop and do this breath technique quickly and easily whenever you need it. 

Once you get to the point where it is simple to breathe like this, try this technique of stopping, going still, getting your feet hip width apart and taking a breath at random intervals during your day.

Eventually, you will get to the point where you are comfortable getting into the technique at a moment's notice.

Then, I encourage you to try it when you face a stressful situation, some sort of competition, or at any time when you need focus and clarity. You will be surprised at how well it works.

Next time, we focus on practice, practice, practice.