As we have already seen in the session Optimize your strengths, we can use our breath to learn, moment by moment, to place ourselves at the optimal point of our Personal Effectiveness Curve. Our focus in this session is on some breathing exercises that allow us to recharge our energy at times when we feel particularly apathetic, unmotivated, and lacking the energy needed to tackle a task or a professional meeting brilliantly. Or, to interrupt that flow of thoughts that, by hindering our planning ability, puts us in a state of procrastination or traps us in the risky web of "I'll do it later, after..." To get out of this state, we can practice intentionally activating our Fight-or-Flight system, that is, the Sympathetic Nervous System. This branch of the Autonomic Nervous System, during which Adrenaline is released, activates a mode of "immediate energy release," from an evolutionary perspective in which the stimulation of this nerve system was linked to immediate activation and immediate energy release, allowing the body to quickly get to safety. The Sympathetic Nervous System is the one that typically and evolutionarily activates during a stress reaction and is counterbalanced, in a physiological state of well-being, by the activation of the Vagus Nerve (see The secret weapon for stress management) Training ourselves to intentionally activate this system through breathing allows us, on the one hand, to reactivate our energy in moments when we feel particularly drained, unmotivated, and unfocused, especially in professional life moments. On the other hand, it allows us to expand our "window of tolerance" (Siegel, 2012) to stress, which consists of the level of tension we can withstand while continuing to feel safe and in control of the situation. Training our body to "small progressive doses" of physiological stress activation allows us to work on this window of tolerance, helping us to get in touch with the body's activation signals, without fearing them and without letting them put us in a state of alarm. EXERCISE Through charging breaths, we intentionally and progressively activate our Sympathetic Nervous System, so as to learn to recognize and "exploit" the body's activation signals. Breathing takes place in the upper part of the chest, inhaling and exhaling through the mouth, and the breathing rhythm tends to become progressively faster. When practicing charging breaths, we sit with our feet firmly on the ground, to give ourselves support and grounding, and with support available behind the back. We make sure that the breath inflates the chest and does not lift the shoulders, that the other muscles of our body are well relaxed, especially those of the face and mouth, and that the eyes remain open, to signal to our brain that we are in a state of activation without alarm during charging. We can place our hands under the collarbone, in the area corresponding to the apex of the lungs, to check that the chest expands.
Once you have taken the basic position, we will begin to practice with cycles of breaths. Starting from the minimum, warming up well, we will start with 5 charging breaths (inhale-exhale through the mouth, slightly faster than normal rhythm); after the last exhalation we will hold our breath, during which attention will be totally focused on the sensations present in the body after activation; when the time naturally comes to start breathing again, we will do so using diaphragmatic breathing, that is, nose-belly. After each cycle, with eyes open, we will bring our attention back to the surrounding context, observing it, looking at it, connecting with the outside. Training in this type of breathing will allow us to gradually increase the number of cycles and the breathing rhythm, always with a view to progressive growth and respect for one's own body. It will be the sensations that each person feels that guide this exploration, sensations that should always be seen as a discovery, without fear or apprehension. Also for these breaths, the advice is to practice daily, to accustom our body to use this energy resource and to train its tolerance to tension. Training these different types of breathing allows us to alternate "hot baths and cold showers," optimally preserving our balance. Happy practicing!