Stop wasting your breath

Day 61 to Fall into Better Habits

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Stop wasting your breath!

According to the American Lung Association, the average person takes about 20,000 breaths per day. Each breath is precious. Each breath is life-giving and vital to our existence. Why, then are we carelessly wasting so many of them? Let’s learn how to budget instead.

Think about this:

What if all the activities you partake in during the course of 24 hours were valued according to how many breaths they required you to give?

Would you still do them?

(#budget your breaths) Image courtesy of Unsplash

Would you give up one precious breath in exchange for that experience?

What if your day looked something like this…

Some activities increase the odds of future breaths, like exercise and walking.

Cost: 1500 breaths

Some give our breaths meaning and purpose, like meditation and intention setting.

Cost: 1000 breaths

Some take our breath away in a good way, like hugging and watching the sunset.

Cost: 600 breaths

Some are vital to our existence, like eating and drinking water.

Cost: 500 breaths per meal

Some suck the breath out of us, like worrying and fighting and fearing the future.

Cost: 2500 breaths now + 2500 more each time you replay the incident in your brain

Some make all our breaths worth giving, like feeling fulfilled because we are of benefit to ourselves, to those we love and to the world.

Cost: 5000 breaths

So, if you get pissed (angry, frustrated, worried, jealous) even twice today and then you think about it after the fact, you are literally wasting about half of your allocated breaths for the entire day.

Hmmm.

Perhaps today’s Baby Step experiment can help you manage those breaths a little better.

(#experiment) Image courtesy of Unsplash

BABY STEP

NOTE: If you can handle a little disruption to your regularly scheduled programming, then you’ll see just how eye-opening today’s exercise is. This is not a proposition to become lazy or to ignore your responsibilities or to neglect your children (#Mom Life 24/7). Nor is this a suggestion to give up housekeeping and become a featured guest on Hoarders. And, certainly, this is not an invitation to leave everything behind to go live in the woods and forage for berries…not every bear is as friendly as Yogi.

It’s just an experiment and it goes like this:

Budget your breaths.

Mindfully, take note of how you’re “spending” your precious 20,000-ish breaths today. Before you react, before you make a decision, before you commit, before you do anything simply question its value to YOU:

On a scale of 1 to 10, is this worth my life-sustaining energy?

Are you filling your lungs for the sake of love, peace, well-being, joy, laughter, harmony, connection, service, purpose?

Because at the end of the day (and, eventually, at the end of your life) the only thing that truly matters is this:

Did I feel fulfilled today?

PS We began this series in September of 2023. You haven’t missed out! Find the tips and techniques used in this series, plus bonus material, in a downloadable format where you can track your progress. Find out more about it HERE.