Could you use a breather?
Dear Applied EQ-ers,
How are you? Could you use a breather?
What’s your breathing like right now?
Can you please humor me for just a moment and take one deep, slow breath?
In through your nose.
Out through your mouth.
Kinda nice, right? Maybe one more?
It’s October, and I find myself wondering how you’re doing.
I wonder if you’re breathing calm and steady, feeling peaceful and fulfilled. Or maybe you’re holding your breath, wondering how you’re going to make it through the school year.
This time last year, I was holding my breath and white-knuckling my way through each and every school day.
I wish I could go back to my past self and tell her, “Stop. Take a breath. It’s okay to be human.”
I wonder if she’d listen. She was always so busy. It’s hard to picture her sitting down and taking a deep breath without rolling her eyes.
Today, I know better.
In educator trainings, Adam always says, “A breath is a single unit of self care that you can offer yourself right now.”
I think, in addition to taking care of yourself, taking one intentional breath is also a first tiny step towards growing your emotional intelligence.
Hear me out.
The first component of SEL we teach is self-awareness. There is no emotional intelligence without self-awareness (which is a real bummer because it’s more difficult than it sounds).
In order to be self-aware, you have to be able to quiet yourself down and go inward. How do you do that? Breathing intentionally is a great place to start. Self-awareness requires making the unconscious feelings and thoughts in your body conscious, and breathing is one of the few bodily functions that happens both consciously and unconsciously.
The breath is like a magical bridge to our inner world.
As we pay more attention to our breath, we pay more attention to our thoughts, our feelings, our selves. We become more self-aware.
The second component of SEL is self-regulation. They build on each other; you can’t regulate what you’re not aware of. So once you get a hold of self-awareness and figure out what all is actually going on inside, then you have to be able to deal with it so you can go about your life and, like, function.
How do you regulate all the emotions you become aware of (especially the really inconvenient ones like drive thru rage) without freaking out?
Again, breathing is the first step. You can use intentional breathing to trigger your parasympathetic nervous system in order to calm yourself down, so you can be aware of (but not overwhelmed by) your feelings.
An effective way to access your emotions and to regulate them is through breathing.
So, basically, breathing is the BEST, and I wish I would have learned how to breathe consciously when I was in school.
Thankfully, there’s still time to learn!
Adam released a few courses for free on teachable because October--teachers just plain deserve wonderful free stuff in October.
I’m currently taking his Breath Series Course, and I want to invite you to join me.
Here are the 3ish minute episode titles to give you a sense of whether you’d be into it:
Episode 1: Why Breathe? (3:36)
Episode 2: Pursed Lip Breathing (3:58)
Episode 3: Belly Breathing (3:43)
Episode 4: Rib Cage Breathing (4:08)
Episode 5: Elbow Touch Breathing (3:56)
Episode 6: Arm Breathing (3:11)
Episode 8: 4-7-8 Breathing (4:59)
Episode 9: Box Breathing (5:19)
I’m not going to hold my breath this October; I’m looking to expand my breathing repertoire. If you’d like to join me, I’d love to breathe better together.
Breath Series Course
You can access the breath series course here. You’ll need to create a teachable account, but if you scroll down past the EQ-uipped Classroom videos, you’ll see three free videos: The Breath, Body, Mind Series.
Is it really possible to take time to breathe and still be a rock star educator?!? Yes! We’d love to EQ-uip you and your students. Let’s connect.
Applying EQ with you, Elizabeth Eason Martin
What’s your EQ story? I would love to hear how you’re applying EQ in your life. Please share in the comments or share with me at Elizabeth@appliedeqgroup.com.
