Page 44 - Taming Your Gremlin A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way (Rick Carson)_Neat

These cerebral processes are important and have their place in controlled
doses. But too much thought can result in you missing life as it is unfolding
for you right now, and can make you anxious and fretful. Proper breathing

can help you maintain an efficient balance between your use of your
intellect and your use of your natural senses. It can help you connect with
and begin to trust the natural you—the observer.

When your breathing is relaxed and clear and you are taking in all of the
air you want and are exhaling fully, you will be more aware of yourself and
more aware of the props and players in your world. You will be more aware
of where you end and they begin, more aware of that miraculous sheath
known as your skin, and most important, more open to a full experience of

the life force within you. In short, your perceptions will be clearer and your
vantage point for responding to change will be better.

If clear, full, relaxed breathing has not been your habit, you may find
when you try it that you feel uncomfortably vulnerable. We have been
socialized into tensing in anticipation of pain, as if this will prevent or
lessen the pain that we fear. Bogus information.

To tense against pain is counterproductive. Tensing, in fact, initiates,

perpetuates, and prolongs pain. Experment with staying aware of your skin
and keeping your breathing clear. If you notice this leaves you feeling
vulnerable, play with thinking of the feeling of vulnerability as a simple
state of relaxed attentiveness.

Your breathing can serve you as both a barometer and a regulator of the
extent to which you dive into an all-out experience of your life. Notice
differences in your breathing as you encounter different kinds of situations,
like when greeting someone special to you. Or in a negotiation with

someone you distrust. Experimenting with proper breathing in various
circumstances, while simple, can be invigorating and, in a way, confronting.
When you do choose to experiment with monitoring and regulating your
breathing, get into it. Practice.

Practice is important. You can read this book or others until you’re a
walking, talking, enviable encyclopedia of facts and philosophies on the
betterment of humankind, and while you might impress your friends with