One confidence tip of the day from Molly Burke, CPCC MSU, Queen of Confidence: Remember to breathe deep

During my long reign as Queen of Confidence I have witnessed many triumphs and tragedies of confidence. Periodically I’ll be sharing what I hope shall be pithy insights intended to act as cautionary tales and inspirational anecdotes as well as practical tools for improving one’s own sense of confidence. You’ll also find powerful questions, confidence tasks and useful affirmations included from time to time, meant to further empower your own sense of confidence. These tips will be shared sporadically, as the inspiration strikes.

Your confidence tip of the day: Remember to breathe deep.

It’s a pretty common thing for a person’s breathing to change in response to their mood and thoughts. It’s also pretty common for a person’s breathing to shorten and become more shallow when they’re anxious. Likewise, when a person feels a measure of social anxiety, their breathing is affected.A simple way to immediately diffuse those rising feelings of social anxiety is to consciously change the rhythm of your breath. When you breathe shallowly, you feel less confident. So instead, breathe deep.

Here’s how:

First, notice how you’re already breathing. When you’re a bit anxious, your breathing will tend to be high in your chest, shallower and faster. Notice that? Good.

Now, scrunch your shoulders up to your ears. Hold them there tightly for a couple of seconds, then let go. Lower your shoulders down and then take a big belly breath. Starting at your navel, expand your belly first as you inhale while keeping your shoulders down. Pay attention to the feeling of the air going in your nose. Hold that big breath for a couple of seconds. Not too long, mind you, but just pause. Then let that big breath out through your mouth with a whooshing sigh.

Repeat this process 3 times.

This exercise will immediately do a whole big bunch of great things:

• lower your pulse rate and blood pressure
• better oxygenate your blood (great for improving cognition and problem solving)
• lower the levels of stress hormones being produced by the body
• calm your nerves
• enable you to ground and center yourself fast

This simple and effective technique can be practiced anywhere, does not require any special skills or equipment, and can be easily done by virtually anyone. It’s easy to teach, too, so pass this along when you see a friend who’s anxious or stressed. Like you when you use this tool, they’ll feel calmer and more confident.

Just breathe.

Molly Burke CPCC MSU
Queen of Confidence
www.lifepurposeworks.com
“I’ve bottled confidence and you can, too!”