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Dear Journal,
These past few weeks have been full of chaos. Life has come with drama, deaths, fear, failure, and so much more. My response patterns begin to change progressively. Normally, I could restructure my thoughts and respond appropriately. Yet this time, it felt as though the walls of life were caving in on me. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t find my breath. I just felt overwhelmed and the losses I had experienced started to over shattered my smile, my strength, and my focus. I had to find something to help me get out this hole I didn’t realize I had dugged. One day my love one said a few words that would change the course of my wavering thought patterns. They simply said “just breathe”. Little did they know that those words would transform my erratic cognitive patterns. In that moment, I decided to take a step back so that I could see how I was experiencing life in that moment. I realized I couldn’t change my situations, however I could change my perspective.
As I assessed my current situation, I realized that I was holding on to things I had no control over. I had a tight grip on people, their situations, and my troubling circumstances. They all had a commonality; they were unchangeable and draining. I couldn’t change them but I could control how I experienced them.
So I sat down on a bench and I closed my eyes. I decided to breathe out slowly. It represented my ability to release negative energy. While breathing, in that moment, I recognized that my hands were shut tight. As I started to open my hands, tears slowly ran down my face and I realized that I had caught a hold of my breathing. I opened my hands completely as a representation of release. I released the things I couldn’t handle, the things that were draining my smile, my joy, and my focus. Realizing that those things were beyond my grip. I let go of all that I had a grip on. When I decided to breathe, my perspective change, which in term allowed me to release the negative energy associated with those situations.
These words alone encouraged me and I hope they encourage you as you decide to “JUST BREATHE”.
Signed,
A woman who decided to BREATHE
Sometimes life has a way of knocking you down. It as though life can throw you a fast ball and before you know it; it has you knocked out on the floor. The fast ball can come in the form of drama, frustration, fear, insecurities, losses, and even by the death of a love one. Just remember that these moments are pivotal moments. Some of these moments you can’t control. Therefore, your response in these moments can move you towards your future or cause you to remain stagnated in a mental whirlwind.
Today, I challenge you to identify what you have a grip on. Perhaps that thing/situation that you are holding on to isn’t producing fruit, but it is generating stress, pain, and other mental blocks. I challenge you to assess what you have a grip on. Consider letting it go especially if you can’t change it and JUST BREATHE!
Will your moments cause you to cave in under pressure or will you learn to simply “JUST BREATHE”?