Let Your Breath Take You Away

Business and life can be stressful. Most folks I know work hard to achieve great things in the future. And live with great regrets about past failures.

Few of us know how to just enjoy the present, which is all we really have. The past is gone. The future isn’t here yet. The present is all we have.

Most of us excel at planning to live. But few of us are really good at simply living.

Oh, I know a few of you reading this are deep into meditation practices, yoga or some other type of practice in trying to live a more centered life. Congratulations to those of you who are successful at this. Most folks feel that they don’t have the time or energy for such seemingly hard work.

So let me give you a simple, easy practice to be in the present, to relax, to neither worry about the past or the future. Anyone can do it anytime and anywhere you choose. And it only takes a few moments.

Here are three simple instructions:

1. Focus on your breathing
2. When you breath in, simply say to yourself, “breathing in”
3. When you breath out, simply say to yourself, “breathing out”

Just repeat this simple practice three times. Many more if you wish. You will find it’s an instant refresher. When we simply focus on our breath in this way, we are unable to focus on the past or the future. We just relax in the beauty of the present.

Go ahead. Give it a try.

Let your breath take you away.

(Thanks to author Thich Nhat Hanh for this simple powerful advice.)