SCABs

‘10,000,000 Breaths’ by @rolloskinner

10,000,000 BREATHS

By Rollo Skinner

 

I’m a breather.

I breathe.

Sometimes consciously.

Sometimes unconsciously.

We all do.

 

You’re probably thinking about your breath now aren’t you?

If you weren’t , then now you are.

 

We breath roughly 10,000,000 times a year. So last week, when asked what we were grateful for, this was my response.

 

‘I’m grateful to know we breath 10 million times a year’.

 

You see, one day I stopped breathing.

 

I stopped breathing.

In the studio.

Nobody noticed.

And I lived to write this scab.

 

I’ll explain a little further.

The pressure is often on in the studio. Several deadlines a week, numerous curve balls chucked our way, it’s easy to get stressed. But as I got stressed I’d stop breathing.  Cortisone floods in, my shoulder hunch, stomach tightens and my breath shallows to a halt.

 

The nearer the deadline, the longer I’d halt. The more stressed you are, the less you breathe, the more stressed you get, the less you breathe, and so on…

 

It took me a while to realise it. But once I did, it was so obvious.  And I’m willing to bet there are more self-suffocaters in the studio.

 

So here’s a simple solution.

Breathe.

Deeply. Happily. Hungrily.

 

The Institute of Stress say ‘there is one “Super Stress Buster” that evokes the relaxation response – BREATHING!’

 

But I guess you probably all knew this. I did too. So why don’t we do it? It’s crazy that we’re given our body’s toolkit and yet we don’t use it properly.

 

Next time your stressed, just clock in with your breath. Are you breathing deeply from your belly? Or just small sips of air into your upper lung? You should aim for the former. The lower the breath, the greater the capacity, the calmer you’ll feel.

 

You can literally breathe stress away.

The pressure has increased in the studio these last couple of weeks, but I’m too high on oxygen right now to care.

 

So I ask you, next time you feel the clock ticking, take a moment , slow right down, breathe deeply and watch your worries melt away.

 

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