Heroines know how to breathe.

If you are a reader of novels, a peruser of historical fiction, maybe a romance or 1000 in your history, you will know that the heroines of these great adventures have mastered the rituals of breathing through every situation.   They keep their poise, and in an ever so refined british accent, brilliantly work their way out of situations winning the day with command.  

Yoga breathing prepares you for such adventures.   By the way, it is perfectly fine to imagine this entire pose read in a british upper crust accent.  In fact it is preferable.  So I digress.  See it helps.  Anyway, no matter where you take a yoga class the instructors will all agree that you must work on the breathing or you are not doing yoga.   Recently I heard it referred to as doing calisthenics in a hot room. 

So I work on the breathing on and off the mat.  Some times I purposefully pull up the three count inhale and the four count exhale to make it through tough situations.  While other times I do it without thought, as it has become so normal for me breath through life.   I am managing my stress level through it and learning to use it to my advantage.     I feel like the powerful women in the novels managing to craftily work my way through the maze during the masquerade ball.   

Life does not make it easy to keep breathing intentionally, that is for sure.  However breathing intentionally can help you get through the tides of life with a little more poise when it counts.   In 1, 2, 3,  hold  out 4, 3, 2, 1, pause, repeat as needed.