52 Proverbs to Build Resilience against Anxiety and Panic E-Book

Fiann Ó Nualláin

• Herausgeber: Mercier Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 283

Beschreibung

Fiann Ó Nualláin brings the ancient wisdom of Irish proverbs to life with the help of modern techniques like mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioral therapy. In this practical self-help book, you'll find 52 proverbs that speak directly to the worries and stresses of modern life. These proverbs are more than clever idioms. They are the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors passed down through generations as a way to navigate life's challenges. By reading these proverbs and following the accompanying exercises, you'll be able to chart a course through life's obstacles and find greater happiness, calm, and meaning. So if you're struggling with anxiety or just looking for practical guidance for living a more fulfilling life, 52 Proverbs to Build Resilience against Anxiety and Panic is the perfect resource. With its blend of ancient wisdom and modern techniques, it's sure to become a go-to self-help book for anyone seeking peace and calm in a hectic world.

Leseprobe

disclaimer: This book is a collection of skills and advice which has been compiled by a wellness practitioner with over twenty years’ experience in social and therapeutic horticulture, community-based outreach and holistic approaches to physical and emotional wellbeing. It should not be used as a medical guide in the purest sense: the author is not a trained doctor, although the contents are reliable and could be useful in the situations described. If serious illness is suspected, medical help should be sought immediately. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any consequences of advice given here or any illness or injury caused in the practice of the techniques or remedies described, nor of any prosecution relating to the treatment of people which may adhere directly or indirectly to the techniques described in this book. The reader should assume full responsibility for any practical use of any of the techniques described. If in doubt, consult a medical practitioner.

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© Fiann Ó Nualláin, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-78117-831-7

eBook: 978-1-78117-832-4

Cover design: Sarah O’Flaherty

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Acknowledgements

I have studied and worked in the field of physical and mental health, social therapeutic and emotional wellbeing for over twenty years – in that time there are many who have contributed to my personal understanding and professional skills set. Some are clinicians, some academics, several mentioned in the bibliography. Others are clients and co-passionists, willing participants and the self-volunteering, friends and family, sharers of stories and experience – people who have strived with, dealt with, and often overcome, anxiety and depressive episodes in their own defiant and indomitable ways. Thank you for the light shone, the encouragement given, and beautiful truths revealed. The spirit of this book is with that acknowledgement and gratitude in mind.

A buíochas to Siobhán McNamara for a gracious eye over the Gaeilge.

Buíochas also to the team at Mercier Press for their long-standing support of my work and their excellent craft of taking a manuscript painlessly into book form.

Introduction

Resilience is not just the capacity to endure setback or trauma, or carry the toll of it, it is the ability to move forward with your life post-crisis, to live a life after the event, without the event continuing to impinge on your day to day. Resilience is the capacity to encounter challenging situations as challenges and not as catastrophes. Resilience is problem solving and problem resolving. Resilience is not letting adversity define you or worse devastate you. The aim of this book is to hone resilient traits or acquire a renewed resilient mindset – resilience is an inherent human trait after all, we stumble our way into walking, we babble our way into talking, we learn from failures and setbacks, we thrive on adaptability, we continue on to the next challenge or learning/achieving opportunity. Our anxiousness may have made us lose connection with that part of ourselves but the 52 proverbs of this book and the exercise that accompany them, aim to make that connection again. The challenge-orientated asks of the exercises forge a challenge-orientated perception of issues affecting our emotional sense of self, so the realisation that something can be done. It is not game over; it is game afoot. We can overcome, we need not be so overwhelmed.

Anxiety is a natural human experience; we all encounter it from time to time. It is the mind and body’s response to stressful, troubling and potentially dangerous situations. A warning signal that all is not currently 100% in good stead or that we may be entering unchartered waters. It is part of our evolutionary biology. A part of being human.

We may have evolved anxiousness to remind ourselves that cliff faces and heights are potentially dangerous, that fast streams and swelling rivers are potentially hazardous, that there could potentially be a tiger or bear or raiding party behind that bush, to figure if this person approaching is a friend or a foe – that moment of apprehension or heightened concern, being a way to focus the mind and take precautions. A survival tool, one like fight or flight. A helpful emotion, a positive motivation to take heed of the situation.

The moment of anxiety may manifest as sense of un- easiness, distress, or apprehension – on an emotional level. As such it is classified as an emotion, as a psychological event. But it can also manifest with a physiological component – with sweating, racing heartbeat, upset stomach, hyperventilation, tremors and other physical sensations prompted by the changes in body chemistry and physiological reactions that emotions can trigger.

The fact is our thoughts and our feelings – our emotional realm – can be experienced dramatically in the body. The panic attack may start with a thought but there is no doubting its bodily repercussions. For most people an encounter with anxiousness passes quickly, the bodily sensations dissipate. One might just have been momentarily nervous on the escalator, or uneasy about sitting an exam or dreading opening a bill. It was a momentary reaction to a short-term problem. But for some, anxiety can be a more regular occurrence; you may have ongoing stress at work or domestically, you might be worrying about a family member or a circumstance thattriggers negative emotional experiences more frequently, you may be coming from a troubled childhood or recent problematic relationship, you may have developed a more acute sense of the troubling, you may be on high alert. You can climb down from that. You can right the ship. Find a balance, take back control.

The fact that we modern humans carried the anxious signal afforded to our ancestors, on into other less outright dangerous but more moderately risky or uncertain scenarios, through the generations to today, it became hardwired into a reaction to the unknown, to the ‘what if’, which is great to stop you from running across a busy road, walking down a dark alley late at night or making rash decisions about life choices. The anxiety or anxiousness being a pause button to fully assess the situation. But this emotional response is not so helpful if everything encountered becomes a potential trigger.

For some, anxiety moves from a momentary and natural alert mechanism to a sustained problem. The concern and reaction to a ‘potential issue’ can tip over into every issue and moment met – becoming constant vigilance and constant fretfulness – ‘Is this phone ringing with bad news?’, ‘Is this post through the door a final notice?’, ‘Is this email a dismissal?’, ‘Is this building a fire hazard?’, ‘Am I at fault’, ‘People will laugh at me’, ‘I am not good enough?’ and other negative judgments that you may take from potentially true or potentially not true into a definite, into a trigger to anxiety. Into an impact on your mental wellbeing. Into your way of life.

This whole book is about reframing your reactive self towards making an accurate assessment and acting accordingly, rather than being overwhelmed by habitual emotions and physical symptoms. It is about resetting how to discern a genuine anxious moment and take it in your stride and not be wrongfooted by a pattern of negative thinking or conditioned mindset. It uses the scientifically validated methods of cognitive behavioural psychology and the helpful practices of mindfulness and positive psychology to build a resilience and an array of circuit breakers to halt anxiety in its tracks. It is about taking control back and being equipped to cope.

Yes, whatever you are anxious about right now is genuine and real to you, but what if you could make it less? What if you could see it differently? What if you had the skills, control and time to pay attention to what may be causing your difficulty and not to what may only be ‘potentially’ risky? What if the only potential at the table was your full potential – your capacity to live the fullest life, unburdened from obstacles to happiness, contentment and even achievements? What if you could dismantle any acquired negative bias and construct a new positive predisposition. What if you could be in a good place? What if you could be the you that you want to be?

To that end this book takes a holistic approach. One of treating the whole person – not just the emotional self, but the social, the creative and the spiritual self – your full self. I have been a holistic practitioner for many years and in my therapeutic work I not only seek to solve the pressing problem but look to the entire lived experience and circumstances of the client. To move out of the shadow of anxiety, depression, trauma, into the sunshine of living a good life. ‘Good’ is not a moral judgment here, it the full blossoming of a positive and experiential life, one worth seeking and filled with rewards and opportunities – one not stilted by the clouds of anxiety or misery.

So throughout this book there will be prompts to get creative, to go inter-mingle, to dance, to do some yoga, to hug a tree or bang a gong. Yes, I also find the use and experience of alternative therapies to be a helpful liberation from woes and worries, to be of proven remedial benefit but also to further circuit-break current emotional and physiological manifestation. So yes, the impetus invoked throughout is to go experience the good (positive) and not feel bad (negative).

The ‘holistic’ in the title is my way to consider the totality of the person, not to see them as their symptoms, rather to build resilience to the problems they face and to encourage a mindset of positivity to all of our worldview, world experience, greater good of life, to a live well lived, and yes, it is ok to hang a dream catcher, its ok to dream big. Your life does not have to remain the current nightmare it may be. The strategies of this book are to open up a brighter life as well as shutting down the triggers of anxiety.

Anxiety as a negative emotional experience, as physio- logical stress response, has indeed a spectrum basis; a sliding scale of intensity and frequency. So no matter what end of the scale or how it manifests in you, the techniques in this book help to circuit-break the experience and retrain the brain out of episodes. It will help to build strategies away from anxiety and stress to go beyond the sense of a loss of control.

There are several types of anxiety disorders; nervous tension, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, as well various phobia-related disorders – of which we can include FOMO (fear of missing out), status anxiety and other social media and modern world anxieties. Sometimes anxiety can result from a medical condition that needs treatment or medications that may require a review. Chatting with your GP is always a good idea.

Prolonged experience of anxiety may tip us into avoidance of places, people or situations, may crush our ambitions and hopes, may alter how we perceive our self and indeed put a negative gloom over our world-view. The concepts in this book seek to reverse that path and navigate a more positive route into wellbeing and control over your emotions, thoughts, and experience of life. It sets out to help you make the changes necessary.

As one proverb states change is the breath of life. Change is the energy to transform. Change is the energy behind catching your breath and finding a way towards a healthy and unhindered life. We can get our life back; we can infuse it with positivity and pleasant outcomes. We can make changes. We are not condemned to eternal anxiety. There is more to life.

Throughout I utilise mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapeutics and positive psychology to boost our capacity to take back control, to have coping mechanisms and to diminish the anxious grip. The aim of this book is not to just be a coping strategy but to be a genuine path to a fuller life beyond worry and negative thinking. And while each proverb, and the exercises or actions connected to each, are steps to overcome trepidation, worrisome thoughts, anxiety and being stuck in perpetual negativity, they are also pathways to living that fuller life – to engage with your true self, your full potential capacity, with a prosocial self, with a self positively connected to nature and the world around you. To the whole you, with all your full potential in the positive.

My aim is not only to dial that negative bias back, but also to bring vigilance and a stronger register to the good going on – to engineer a positivity bias. The actions and exercise are designed to strengthen an awareness of positivity and to work with constructive motivations and our natural neuroplasticity to rebuild the brain circuitry and chemistry in favour of a positive bias – of a more frequent experience of the good things.

We programme ourselves with the words we tell our- selves – just consider for a moment how much of your fear or anxiety is self-talk – the inner critic or the echoes of detractors or previous perpetrators. So, the words in this book are a way to programme a different approach to life. In part, it is about reframing and altering our narrative from all the bad to all the good, but it is also a way to prime the brain for acceptance of the good. It is written with neurolinguistic programming in mind, so repetition of words or phrases and word selection are ways of reinforcing the message, ways of helping the mind pick up on the point. You may find similar patterns in guided meditation or in wellbeing apps – all designed to make it easy to put into practice the solutions they offer.

Our anxiety has wired our brain, personality and the way we experience living, but we can rewire it to a better state of operations. We can make little changes that have a big long-term impact. We are not talking ‘back to factory settings’ we are talking ‘upgrade’.

I have used these techniques in my life to overcome the hyper-vigilance, worry and depression, present from childhood. I had, by my reactions to experiences, trained myself to deepen my negative bias and it stilted my life, made friendships and relationships difficult to sustain and while I could mask it long enough to get through a working day, there really were few days that were not hard work.

I had not yet come across the seanfhocalit won’t always be raining. All I could see was the rain or the raincloud forming. I was looking at the momentary experiences of calm or peace or contentment as the transitory part, I wasn’t seeing that the pain, the hurt, the darkness, were also transitory. I wasn’t maximising the dry and unthreatening days and I was stuck in bad weather. It took me a long time to see it, to change my reactions and responses – to get out from under the cloud. It took some perseverance after the initial insight, but I had always loved the poetics and humour in proverbs and began using them as circuit breakers, affirmations and ancestral advice. I found sup- port, solace and strategy there.

For many years now, I have chosen to live each day to the best of my ability, not frozen by past or future, not halted by self-recrimination or anxiousness. Situations and triggers can sometimes still arise, but I can let them go, I don’t need to grab on anymore. Of course, there is always the possibility that an unforeseen storm could come and knock me over, but now I know I don’t have to stay down, I am not anticipating it to the neglect of enjoying calm days, now instead, I am ready to predict the sunshine to come.

I look at it now believing there is a world out there to explore, a life to be lived and the weather just dictates my footwear not my mind-set. I don’t self-identify as a psychological disturbance, I find myself in life, in living more mindfully and fully. This is not a book about the history of my troubles, yet my own pathway out has in- formed it. I may reference some of my experiences within certain passages, but they are universal experiences and while we are all unique and psychological complications come in different forms, strengths and durations – there are some universals wisdoms to help get through and be- yond such experiences.

The contents here are based both upon first-hand experience and the culmination of years of participation with mindfulness and psychotherapies. This is how I mastered and diminished my own personal demons and how I have helped others commence their path to vanquish theirs.

In the useful tools section and peppered throughout the book, there are skills sets to assist that different way. Some you will really enjoy and even relish and for some people there may be a few that are slightly embarrassing or awkward and others that may even be terrifying – but hold strong and conquer. Remember the stoic poet Ovid, Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim – Be patient and tough; someday all this pain will be useful to you. You might want to write that down and stick it on the fridge. Do the same with any of the proverbs here that really resonate with you.

Think of these proverbs as the advice our ancestors wished to pass on, a far-reaching chain of respect and self-care, a goldmine of hard learned experience, a loving kindness to the next generation. Think of these proverbs as more than ancient sense but as contemporary affirmations. Affirmations are not fool’s errands, they are the stories we tell ourselves, so instead of telling ourselves how hard it is to be ourselves with all that baggage that we lug around, let’s write a new narrative and navigate our world with a brighter more successful outlook. Let’s look beyond the clouds, they are breaking anyway, the sun is cutting several shafts through, soon it will be all blue skies and serotonin release. It is never always raining.

  Proverbial wisdom

Proverbs are often thought of as clever idioms or witty observations, but in truth they are the encoded wisdom of our ancestors, incorporating the keenest insights and best life advice stretching back through the ages. They have been distilled over generations, passed on like life-coaching batons from generation to generation. Embodying not just the cultural attitudes of the place they originate in but the survival advice and moral codes that each generation wishes the next generation to cherish and learn from. Proverbs are generated and known in all cultures, worldwide. They are perhaps the oldest teaching tools, the most effective transmission of how to live a life well and are invaluable as road maps through the vicis- situdes of life.

So, the proverbs in this book are the insightful nuggets of the collective consciousness, experience and of the tried and tested. The proverb or seanfhocal (old word) alone is a potent expression of a mindset, the Irish proverbs selected here are standard bearers of a way of thinking that has brought resilience, overcoming, solace and positive motivation to each generation. The Irish wisdom of ancient heritage is so pertinent today.

And while each seanfhocal/proverb offers a psychological insight, perception shift or attitude adjustment, the exer- cises that accompany them are designed to reinforce the proverbial wisdom, to sink it in by way of a practice, task or additional learning aid. By getting you to perform or consider other options, it is not solely a reframing of current woes but a gaining of skills to work through the vicissitudes of life and with the dynamics of anxiety.

The idea is to incorporate into your life, those concepts and tools contained within this book that strike a chord with you personally – they are the ones that will especially work for you as they come to fill your days with meaning as well as a method out of pain. The book is laid out as a programme where you can take a proverb each week, over a year and take the time to develop the skills and engage with the exercises, building each week, strengths and strategies to developing a more resilient and focused mind-set, to undermine the grips of anxiousness and free yourself from triggers and pitfalls. Of course, you can read it all at your own pace, in one sitting, over a few days or as a dip in dip out and still benefit from the proverbial wisdom and the insights and revelations they prompt and provoke. As you read these profound ancient words and follow the exercises, a pathway to a more in control, full potential self will become clear.

Useful tools

Every good worker knows that good tools make for an easier job; be that a sharp axe or a smart phone or a well-oiled machine. The work that you want to do on yourself also requires tools (or skillsets) that will make the job easier to accomplish. There is an old Irish proverb pertinent here; Si leith na ceirde an úirleais – The tools are half the trade, it stresses the importance of good tools or quality skills in accomplishing the task – they are half of what is required. Will power, brute force, perspiration, passion, desire, diligence, enthusiasm or even desperation won’t get you there alone – tools are a prerequisite.

In Ireland, phrases such as ‘half the battle’, ‘half the job’ or ‘half the trade’ are employed to express that your endeavourers are being sped up – helped along and assisted by something – that doing the thing or having the item in hand, is getting you there faster and more completely. A kettle is half the battle in making a cup of tea, breath control is half the battle in attaining meditative states, and a journal may be half the battle in identifying the triggers of your sorrows.

It is interesting to note that many of the seanfhocail, can have an extra nuance, can reveal a second truth – this one also reminds us that acquiring the tools is only half the trade, using them is the other half. It’s not worth a fig if you know how to relax but never relax. It’s no benefit mentally understanding how to do several yoga asanas but never physically performing them. Knowing that you need to make changes is not making changes. Wanting to be free of repetitive thoughts or self-damaging behaviours is not doing enough of the job. Get the appropriate tool, to do the job.

Here follows a brief introduction to some of the tools pertinent to the job of creating a more positive self, of living a more mindful and grounded life, of taking control of your emotional wellbeing, of building resilience and equanimity, and of enjoying the joys of life too.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness at its core is a spiritual tool – best known in the Buddhist tradition as Sati and a key practice on the path to enlightenment. Its essence being, that by enter- ing a state of ‘attentive awareness’ – that’s being fully pre- sent to the moment-to-moment reality of the present, observing without judgement, being without biases – is a way of coming fully alive to the reality of things. This practise of being of original mind or what some frame as being in ‘the now of the now’, is the switching on of your spirit, the manifesting of your pure reality – it is your alive essence unhindered by ego and emotions – the you without layers of conditioning; one might even say ‘the natural you’ or ‘the enlightened self’.

The Buddhist spiritual discourses on establishing sati/mindfulness can be found in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta, where it is also highlighted that the intent of the Buddha was to see mindfulness as a means of ‘the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the extinguishing of suffering and grief, for walking on the path of truth, for the realisation of nirvana’. And while each of those objectives is a spiritual motivation, one can’t but notice a psychological function in ‘overcoming sorrow and lamentation’.

In recent decades, the popularity of contemporary mindfulness, which some like to call secular mindfulness, is considered a form of the practice utilised to achieve equanimity and control over stress and the strains of modern life – as a tool of destressing and finding inner peace. But it can be much more than a relaxation pro- gramme – all the mindful techniques continue to have application as both a path to enlightenment and to extinguishing suffering and grief. Embraced now as a tool by western psychology, mindful practices are utilised to treat anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, depression, and other disturbances in mental wellbeing – with great success.

That accomplishment is because mindful practices bring one to a reality that is not clouded by thought biases or emotionally-triggered judgments or preconceptions, it allows your psychological self to experience the world or situation (and your part in it) for what it really is. As a psychological tool, mindfulness meditation and practices are seen to liberate yourself from the clutter of dissonant thoughts and manage better those pings, pangs and stings of life’s vicissitudes. It is not just attaining a peace of mind but attaining neuroplasticity – retraining how the signalling brain reacts, bringing more self-control. Being in the now – right here, right now, awake and present – there is neither time nor place for catastrophising or be- coming overwhelmed.

Mindfulness is a way of being more responsive and less reactive, it is a way to have better clarity with thoughts arising or moving through and discerning which emotions to pay attention to and which to let go. You can acknowledge the thought and even its emotion, but you don’t have to grasp at it, or invest the rest of your day in it. That anxious moment, that depressive trigger, that inner critic, they can all pass like clouds. Mindfulness is a means of control. You control your breath, you control your thoughts, you con- trol your emotions, you control your reality. This won’t halt every bad situation or complicated circumstance, but it will give you control over how you are in the face of those circumstances. It will strengthen your resolve and your resilience, but it will also increase your participation and enjoyment with life. It will, over time, manifest a stronger frequency of better situations and achieve more positive outcomes. Here are some of its techniques/practices:

Conscious awareness: This is both the goal of mindfulness and the way to attain mindfulness. Conscious awareness is simply being present in the moment, being present to each moment, moment by moment. It is experiencing reality and yourself with clarity and without judgement, obstacles or disturbance.

You do it by simply becoming aware of what is happen- ing, or what you are doing, right now in the moment it is occurring. It is being alert and awake to the moment, not daydreaming, fearing, ruminating, or fantasizing through it. It is simply meeting the moment with your full self, meeting it mindfully (consciously) not with a mind full (self-consciously or half distracted).

It takes practice to develop this ability and there are several practices that hone the skill; following your breath, engaging your senses, and mindfulness meditations in- cluding the techniques described later in this book, such as body scans and progressive muscle relaxation and then there are mindful virtues – such as loving kindness and gratitude – peppered through this book.

You can think of mindfulness/conscious awareness as a lifestyle, as a personality trait, as a spiritual dimension or even as a psychological coping strategy but deliberately living a more mindful life, when and where you can, will enrich your life. The more we do it the more we become it, soon enough mindfulness will be incorporated into your life daily – it will become your way to a better life – and that’s not as difficult a task or ask as you might think.

Consciousliving: In the context of your currently psycho- logical woes, stepping into conscious living is stepping out of striving and struggling with your torment. It can be a circuit breaker to your angst; that moment of truly smelling a flower, or truly tasting a cherry or truly hearing a bird song can transport you to a better place. That mind- ful moment can bring you to a better frame of mind, but it doesn’t only have to be an escape hatch, it can be your more frequent experience of life. You just need to start experiencing life more mindfully.

You can be conscious to breathing, to walking, to sit- ting to relax or sitting to meditate. Being conscious of your lived moments and the sensations attending, brings you into life, into a purer experience of your life. You can hone this skill to maximise your quality of life; you could consciously eat your favourite meal, or consciously swim in the sea, consciously sit under a tree, consciously make love. You are not seeking enhanced pleasures or desperately trying to find more happiness and less pain – but both come to varying degrees with it – you are just looking to live consciously and not sleepwalk through, or be a puppet in, your own life. That is control, power, and a way of being the force of your own life.

Breath awareness: One of the first steps to mastering conscious awareness is mastering breath control which is really a way to gain control over your attention. It is as much thought control as it is a breathing technique. The breathing technique does occasion a relaxation response and it can be utilised to trigger composure in a troubling situation. The following of the breath also helps to frame a steadier self and more equanimous mind-set as it teaches the brain to be less reactive to experiences and thoughts, and over time builds a neural pathway to reinforce the self-control. It is often employed as the on switch to other mindfulness practices. It is a simple process but may take a time to perfect and the fact that you may have to work at it, is simply building the muscle memory until it’s so automatic that you are just in the zone whenever you need.

To attain a conscious awareness of breathing is to simply follow it, let your attention experience it. It is not a chore; it is a skill; it is a discipline. Practice makes perfect. Become consciously aware of your breathing pattern/rhythm – you don’t have to slow it or alter it – just noticing the inhale and being with the exhale brings your focus to the process of breathing and not off on a journey of white water rafting your thoughts and emotions. Simply breathe as normal, follow the inhale in, follow the exhale out, be with the next inhale, be with the next exhale and on.

You may get a few breaths followed before your mind starts to drift, that’s ok, when you realise you are not breathing in but thinking about household insurance or what’s for dinner or that twist in last night’s soap opera, then you can just come back to the breath and take a time out from those meandering thoughts. We are not looking to actively suppress thoughts; we can notice them arise and let them pass by without having to latch on and follow them all day. Honing in on your breathing helps the mind stay calm while sharpening your power of concentration, thus enabling you to place your attention where you want it – and that includes off repetitive thinking or away from that inner critic.

Simply observe and experience the in and out, in and out, in and out. Each one a physical and psychological repetition – just like gym reps – you are strengthening here. You are not just experiencing respiration you are, by returning from thoughts to breathing, repeatedly, training your brain to focus better on the task in hand not the emotions in the head or gut. Breath awareness can become the switch to your ‘in control’ self.

Breath awareness is often practised as a meditation, but it can be done standing, walking, waiting for a bus, sitting on a train, cycling, hanging out washing, etc. It is not a dangerous process, it does not hypnotise you, you won’t steer the bicycle off the cycle track, miss the bus or drop the baby. It is just breathing, but mindfully – that’s aware, not drowsy. Because some people only know on as active and off as unconscious, they find that slowing down makes them sleepy, but it will help you become more focused, more energised, more dynamic. Use it when you want it. Later you can use it when you need it most.

Coming to your senses: The breath exercises are so vital they are primal, they hack into our very life essence and tap into the breath of life to alter our life. There are many different versions, from the simple follow and return, to alternations in rhythm and depth of breath, to alternate nostril breathing, diaphragm breathing and many yogic techniques that can also benefit from appropriation into mindful meditations – but they all use a fundamental necessity of the system – the inhale and exhale of life – to provide a systemic overhaul.