Breathing is the most profound yet automatic action we take every day

The breath of life is the most profound yet automatic action we take every day. Our body automatically breathes for us to take in oxygen for our billions of individuals cells in our bodies to survive daily. Did you know the average human takes 20,000 breathes a day?? The amazing part is this activity is very simple for us, as it is primarily a subconscious activity. On the same token, breathing is complex and affects all parts of our body. The oxygen we breathe in gives us life with every breath we take!

The challenge is what are we doing with the oxygen that we breathe in daily? For me, some days are massively productive and other days I can get caught up in paralysis or the doldrums of defeat and be significantly less productive. It is on those defeating days I have to “dig deep” and find meaning for the day. I have to look around and push myself to identify constructive aspects to work on. And on deeper days of paralyzation or struggle, we must find things to be grateful for and find meaning in the work for that day. It is often on days when it feels like nothing is going “our way” in which negativity enters our brain, pessimism takes over, and can stop us in our tracks halting real productivity for the day.

It is also on days in which people around us irritate us or make us angry, we often forget to just breathe and work through a delicate situation or a difficult process or conversation. In our world today, our attention and focus can get pulled away from the work that matters. We can let politics enter our brains and just destroy our productivity. We can let the agitation of Covid and all things associated with Covid affect our mindset sending productivity for the next hour or day into a tailspin.

For example, yesterday, we had a personal credit card and a business credit card stop our ability to make purchases for fraud security reasons. And it was in the process of multiple phone calls being dropped, being put on hold, phone calls being dropped, needing passwords, security pins I couldn’t remember, and not being able to understand people out of the Philippines, my frustration had reached a peak level I hadn’t let myself reach in years. And it was in the fading moments I had to remind myself, “Nels, just breathe, it’s not that big of a deal!”

We all have those moments, and we just need to breathe and live. There are many moments, be it in frustration, or time of loss, times of tragedy, times of conversations gone bad, times where you felt someone betrayed you, or times of paralyzing fear in which we must simply just breathe. We can all get caught up and “stop living” in many moments of life. But your life is waiting for you to live! Let your life live, make it live! It’s up to you! God helps those that help themselves, so don’t feel sorry for yourself. Just breathe in the breath of fresh air and let your body live! Some need ventilators to breathe, you don’t!