There are times when our emotional reactions are
heightened and we may not be able to seek the solace of a trusted friend or
have our journal handy. When circumstances like time and location impede
you from accessing your chosen source to regroup, another valuable skill to
learn can be breathing techniques. Learning to control the physical
element of our body can help us better control the emotional side.
Believe it or not, your physical body is directly
connected to your emotions. In fact, masters of meditative techniques say
that they can quickly change their emotional state by focusing on their
breathing. Perhaps meditation isn’t your thing, but that doesn’t mean you
can’t learn how to use your breathing to better deal with advancing your
career.
For example, slow steady breathes that completely
fill your lungs and then are slowly released will actually slow down your heart
rate, which in turn will slow blood flow and bring down your sense of
frustration or anger. In contrast, do you ever need to work yourself up
for an emotional scene? The opposite practice will speed up your blood
flow, heart rate, and send your body into preparations to escape or defend as
it feels threatened. Meditation, yoga, and some aerobic training classes
can help you learn and develop these skills, but so can you natural awareness
of what is happening in your body during heightened emotional states. Pay
attention the next time you feel elated, overwhelmed, anxious, fearful, angry,
etc. That just might be the best way to tap into those emotions on a whim
in the future and to control them when they start to surface at inopportune
times.
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