What to do Before Walking into Your Next Room for more Mindfulness and Resilience

<p> Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, the show that's here in support of the person you're becoming in your quest to live a meaningful life. I'm not sure if you caught the episode yesterday from our series A Perfectly Imperfect Union. If you didn't, I would recommend that you check it out. I spoke with Robina from Maui.</p>
<p></p>
<p>She's a wonderful soul, beautiful human, putting a good ripple effect into the world. And at the end of each conversation I'm having with people in this series, I ask them if they have a question for the next person I speak with. For me, it's a way to connect neighbor to neighbor to neighbor. And Robina's question is this: "Are you breathing deeply?"</p>
<p></p>
<p>Last week I was speaking at an off-site meeting for one of my corporate clients, and her team has been breathing hard over the last six months, and they have more work in front of them. So we took a moment to breathe deeply. And in a moment of trivia, I asked them, "How many breaths do you think we take in a day?"</p>
<p></p>
<p>No one really had a clue. The answer is somewhere between twenty and twenty-five thousand, and rarely do we think about any of them, which means that we're probably not breathing deeply as much as we could. So today's episode is a reminder to breathe deeply and check your energy before walking into a space.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I'm not sure about you, but I think the universe is pretty awesome sauce, and I love how certain things come into our awareness from time to time. And over the last few weeks, this one thing I shared, which ties back to our breath and our energy, kept on coming back to me. I wrote a blog post back in twenty-twenty during the height of the pandemic, and through my travels, I came across a sign from the Indiana University Health Center, and it reads, "Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Your words matter. Your behaviors matter. Our patients and our teams matter. Take a slow, deep breath and make sure your energy is in check before entering. Thank you." I'm not sure if they still have this sign up in their facilities. I really hope they do. What I really hope for is that every company out there, every business, would have a similar sign, just as a reminder for all of us to check our energy, because our energy creates a ripple effect.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And when we get too reactive, sometimes the words and the behaviors we choose can really hurt. They can harm. But one of the great choices we have is to be intentional. We can slow things down, take a deep breath, and intentionally walk into the space with energy that can make a difference by being wiser with our words, kinder with our behaviors, and that's the type of ripple effect that can create a better tomorrow for all of us, not just some of us So I'll encourage you to go back to yesterday's episode and listen to Rubina and take in her energy.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And as Indiana University's Health Center advised people six years ago, be responsible for the energy you bring into your spaces. And if you need to, slow it down, take a deep breath, and make sure your energy is in check before coming into any space, whether that's your home as you come back from work, an airplane if you happen to be traveling, a Zoom or a Teams meeting if you're connecting with people virtually, or your local coffee shop or a doctor's office.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We can all check our energy, and that might be a great step forward in creating a meaningful life and helping us turn into the people we're becoming</p>
<p></p>
<p>As always, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. I hope you'll check out the next episode in our series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union. Tomorrow's episode, we go to Maryland and speak with Heather. So I hope you'll check it out, and the new episodes I have for you on Whole Again. Until all that, let's remember to celebrate our scars as golden symbols of our strength and resilience, and don't forget to have fun storming the castle.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day, please visit my website, michaelobrienshift.com, and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole Again, and discover how you can heal, grow, and become more resilient, and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this, and we've got you.</p>