Breath Steers Your Mind

Keywords

Impulsive, mood swings, exaggeration, muddled, listless, busy body, ennui, cold, distant

The Dance of Breath and Emotion

When your mind is steered by breath, you may feel at the whim of your emotions. You may compulsively act out intense emotions or dutifully avoid dealing with emotions.

Breath Senses Inner and Outer Environment

You are sensitive to your inner world and the outer environment. You may even experience claustrophobia or agoraphobia. As an empath, you feel in your own body what others are going through physically and emotionally. Your mood can change without any obvious reason.

Situations can easily feel overwhelming. Tension may suddenly escalate, but that heightened energy quickly dissipates.

Mood and Energy Swings

Your energy and moods are not always consistent. You can easily go from hyperactivity to lethargy.  You may become easily bored or melancholic. Your thoughts may be sharp and clear one minute then quickly shift to murky or muddled. You may find yourself speaking or acting impulsively.  Some people may perceive you as cold or distant.

Is It Safe?

When your breath runs away with your mind, you have difficulty feeling safe and at ease. You carry a subconscious dread, like something is about to happen that you can’t handle. You freeze in stressful situations. You walk on eggshells around certain people or even hide from them when possible. You don’t quite feel comfortable in your skin.

Bridge Between Conscious and Unconscious

Becoming aware of your breathing creates a bridge between your conscious and unconscious.  Once you recognize involuntary breath patterns, you have the power to change them. Steadying the breath stabilizes your emotional state. Working with your breath is key to becoming more embodied and empowered to stand up, show up, and speak up.

Steady As You Go

Your journey toward reining in your breath can start right now by simply paying attention to your breath at this moment. How effortful is your breath? How deeply are you breathing? Is your breath fast, slow, steady, or hesitant? What is your natural breath like?

Why Understanding Your Senses Is Valuable

As part of the animal self, the senses are driven by pleasure and pain, appetite and distaste, craving and revulsion. They move toward what they desire and away from what they dislike.

One sense may dominate or a few may conspire to rule your mind.  This can lead to feelings that your life is out of your control and your senses drag you hither and fro.  May you numbly aimlessly wander through your day as the senses seek to satisfy their appetites.  Anxiety, depression, hopelessness, restlessness, insecurity, and sensitivity are symptoms of your senses steering your mind.

The results of this quiz can help you improve your relationship with your senses.  Like a horse-whisperer subtly communicates with a horse to steer them, you can learn to guide your senses through self-empathy.  As your senses relax and trust your conscious guidance, they operate as a powerful team that you rein in the direction of your choosing.