Breathe first. Then continue to breathe as you feel your emotion.

Otherwise you’re in danger of turning your emotion into commotion.

Rather than taking a deep breath in reaction to your commotion, take deep breaths for the sake of taking deep breaths, using the emotion as a reminder to breath. It helps to close your eyes if that’s possible.

Slow down and find the gentle, soothing breath. There will be a dramatic difference in the quality of how it serves you. This isn’t to replace your emotions but to serve them in the best way possible. Take in the vital life force you need to be fully present to your experiences (versus being fully “present” to creating the story around your feelings), giving you the ability to create from a more tolerant and equitable place rather than to get sucked into the vortex and into the commotion. The resistance is in the addiction to feeling the righteousness and preserving the identity as your ego knows itself. You are more than that. You are stronger than that. Ask yourself how giving in serves you, and then own where you go with it.

Connection to your breath is connection to your vital life force and the bridge to your soul, which is connection to your most honest self. We are blessed to have such a powerful tool to navigate our inner world (which presents itself to the outer world) and so many reminders in our day to connect with it. May we use it to know what to do next.