What do cross-country skiing, rifle shooting, and spirituality have in common? The answer is conscious breathing.
In my Live Joy Coaching business, I am helping purpose driven women create bold change in their lives and the world by teaching them how to integrate spirituality and energy practices into their personal growth.
Because of my spirituality most people assume I learned how to master conscious breathing through my spiritual practices. The truth is that conscious breathing is actually a skill that I learned from biathlon.
Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It requires the ability to control and regulate one’s breathing pattern in different situations.
Conscious breathing helped me not only to improve my performance and well-being as an athlete, but also to enhance my spiritual awareness as a human being.
Conscious breathing is essential for biathletes, because they have to switch between two very different modes of activity: skiing and shooting.
Skiing requires high-intensity aerobic exercise, which increases the heart rate and oxygen demand. Shooting requires low-intensity anaerobic exercise, which requires calmness and precision. To cope with these changes, biathletes need to adjust their breathing accordingly.
When you ski, you are encouraged to breathe deeply and rhythmically, using your diaphragm, chest, and back muscles. This helps to deliver more oxygen to your muscles and brain, and to recover faster after each lap. When you shoot, you are taught to breathe slowly and deliberately, using techniques such as box breathing. This helps to lower your heart rate and blood pressure, and to stabilize the body and mind.
I find endurance sports to be very meditative. Running, skate skiing, you find your pace, your stride and focus on the rhythm and you can go for miles and miles.
By paying attention to my breath whether when running or meditating, I become so much more mindful of the present moment and am able to connect easier with my inner self.
It is interesting to me that the same methods of conscious breathing that help me perform as a biathlete also help me go within, balance my energy and access higher levels of wisdom and insight. It allows me to experience joy, peace, and gratitude each and every day.
Curious, How do you meditate? Share your favorite technique or tip with us.
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