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.

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.