Conscious Breathing

Sometimes it happens that you are stuck in your thoughts around something or someone. Let us say you are supposed to meet a deadline in your work. Then even on a Sunday, your thoughts will keep going into the Monday, the discussions you are going to have, the work you are going to do, the issues you are facing to complete that.

Or suppose you have to travel somewhere a week later. Your thoughts will circle around that until the travel happens and it is behind you. Or let us say you had a tiff with a friend, you will find yourself thinking about it no matter what you are doing.

This doesn’t happen when you are engaged in something that matters to you, the time you spend working to complete a project or the time you were travelling or the time you were meeting your friend. When you are in the process of doing something, your thoughts are more present, in the activity.

This is one reason why people want to be busy doing something all the time. Idling is the most difficult thing for us. You can never find yourself happy sitting idle. That’s why you squirm with unease when you have to wait for something to happen. Say you are stuck waiting for a bus or a result of your exam. You can’t simply do something else until that happens. You are in an idle state but with the velocity of your thoughts. This is great unease.

This is also the reason you talk rubbish when you meet people. You can’t be with silence with another person. You keep bringing up topics that are irrelevant and talk more than what you wanted to. If you say ‘I don’t have much to discuss’, it appears rude and you may become uninteresting for others.

You can see the YouTube podcasts of famous people. They are no doubt interesting when they talk about their experience. But the most relevant content in their talks will be a matter of minutes. Everything else is extraneous. They end up talking because there is more pressure to talk with people watching than to remain silent. Our conference calls are pretty much like that. You invite 10 people and make eight people sit there with no relevance for them.

Smart phones have come as a boon for many. More than their original use which was about making a phone call, they are more used to play a game, watch a video or chat your lungs out. It helps you get busy effectively keeping you away from the problem of dealing with yourself. But see the damage this causes you. Actions begets Actions. You are in an endless loop of dumbing you down causing more harm to you as well as others.

The ability to bear your own inner chitchat is an important quality to develop to bring peace within you. One of the effective ways to achieve this is ‘conscious breathing’. If you practice this, you can spend more time with you without needing external support. You can be more present and not lost in thoughts that come and fill you.