By A FRESH 60-SECOND REMINDER THAT WILL SPARE SOME PAIN TODAY
By Angel Chernoff
NOTE TO SELF: The goal is not to get rid of all your negative thoughts, feelings, and life situations from the recent past. That’s impossible. The goal is to change your response to them in the present.
How? By breathing more…
As you read these words, you are breathing. Stop for a moment and notice this breath. You can control this breath, and make it faster or slower, or make it behave as you like. Or you can simply let yourself inhale and exhale naturally. There is peace in just letting your lungs breathe, without having to control the situation or do anything about it.
Now imagine letting other parts of your body breathe, like your tense shoulders. Just let them be, without having to tense them or control them.
Now look around the room you’re in and notice the objects around you. Pick one, and let it breathe. There are likely people in the room with you too, or in the same house or building, or in nearby houses or buildings. Visualize them in your mind, and let them breathe.
When you let everything and everyone breathe, you just let them be, exactly as they are. You don’t need to control them, worry about them, or change them. You just let them breathe, in peace, and you accept them as they are. This is what letting go is all about. It can be a life-changing practice.
At our annual seminar, Think Better, Live Better, Marc and I guide attendees through this process of letting go—and breathing steadily through life’s twists and turns.
Truth be told, inner peace begins the moment you take a new breath and choose not to allow an uncontrollable event to dominate you in the long term. You are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to become in this moment. Let go, breathe, and begin again in the weeks ahead…
Let us challenge you to THINK BETTER—to reevaluate the stories you subconsciously tell yourself, and to do a reality check with a more objective mindset. All it takes is a little guidance and practice.
