the w0nd3r: #21 - Breathing Part 2: My Co-worker Is A !&$%

Greetings Beautiful People

My intention was to share some of my experiences with conscious breathing in Part 2 but I know some of you have co-workers that are...let's say challenging :), so we'll get to that in Part 3.

Here's an extract from the book in which Ingrid talks about her experiences with a difficult boss:

Observing the Breath @ Work - The Art of Effortless Living pgs 112-113
"The first time I used awareness of breathing to influence events in my life was in the early stages of my transition from being an academic to developing a practice as a healer. I was doing some public relations consulting for the president of a college in New York City, and this president had a habit of asking me for the impossible.
She would give me a goal to accomplish but then wouldn't give me the resources that would help me do what she needed to have done. The more unrealistic her expectations were, the more demanding she would get. My finances weren't in the best shape, and I needed the work, so I wasn't free to walk. But this president was making me nervous, and I had to do something. I noticed that I felt knotted up inside whenever I met with her. I decided to work on relaxing my body through practicing breath awareness when I was in her company.

Every time I sat down with this college president, I would focus my attention on training my body into a relaxation response. When the conversation got difficult, I would notice the tension building up inside me and would work on bringing my body back into deeper levels of relaxation even while we were talking. I did not have any ambitions. I just wanted to get more comfortable in my own skin. But this experiment had unexpected results. Within a month, the communication difficulties I had with this woman were resolved. By using a technique that made me more physically at ease in the president's presence, my bearing and tone of voice had changed. I was speaking more powerfully. And by focusing on relaxing, I communicated subliminally to the president I was more confident, and less likely to respond to her attacks by feeling cowed. She stopped attacking and started respecting my opinions."

My girlfriend went to the Nuffield Health Centre for a check-up recently and the doctor there said: "95% of our patients come for work-related stress."

95%

So please share if you know anyone having a nightmare at work. You don't want to find out they did something like this: