Practice, Practice, Practice
Thomas Crum
 "The Three Deep Breaths are all feeling great now," she said during a coaching session. "But, how do I center when I'm really losing it, when I'm so angry I can't think?"
I smiled, and asked her what the guy in N.Y.C. said when a visitor asked him how to get to Carnegie Hall. "Practice!" she laughed, knowing the answer to her question.
Exactly. Itzhak Perlman doesn't just show up and play the violin. Michael Jordon spent hours daily on basketball fundamentals. Music and sports are mind/body arts - not intellectual concepts that you can file away and retrieve with a click of the mouse.
Relationship and emotional mastery are also mind/body arts. Once you know some critical base skills like Three Deep Breaths, it's time to practice.
In the 1997 finals, Michael Jordan was so sick with the flu he was like a rag doll, too weak and nauseous to go to warm-ups. He played anyway, and scored 38 points, including the key 3-pointer at the end.
"They don't understand the foundation I had to support everything that came afterward," Michael writes in Driven From Within. "They don't know about hitting weights at 7 am, practicing hard every day, finding ways to motivate myself for every game, sitting up half the night with my ankle in a bucket of ice. They don't know anything about those things."
Likewise, Three Deep Breaths can be rehearsed daily in the little upsets, like rush-hour traffic or waiting for customer service to answer the phone, so you will be ready for those big crises.
Remember:
- The Centering Breath - focus on the present moment; replace reaction by observing and feeling your thoughts and emotions
- The Possibility Breath - breathe in your highest quality and purpose for the moment at hand.
- The Discovery Breath - breathe in the mystery, being curious and compassionate toward yourself and the person you are in contact with. Then let your words and actions flow from a desire to learn and grow rather than a need to be right or to defend.
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JOURNEY TO CENTER --- The Place to Be
Our Journey to Center program is the ideal place to really integrate the Three Deep Breaths into your life. This year's program will be September 10-14,2007 in Peaceful Valley, Colorado. If you would like to be part of the small group that spends a week with Tom, the time to sign up is NOW. Space in the program is extremely limited. What could be better than a fall week in the Colorado Rockies with Tom Crum!
Remember, with the critical skills you will learn in Journey to Center, you will be able to:
- Respond to change and complexity with power and efficiency, from a calm place within.
- Deal effectively with conflict while maintaining centered relationships with all.
- Develop the ability to act effectively under pressure.
- Reduce the exhaustion of modern life so that you can operate at optimum levels of energy, performance, productivity, and peace.
Journey to Center combines full-group sessions, small-group discussion, mind/body exercises, and one-on-one coaching, all in a rejuvenating, pristine, Rocky Mountain setting, to create a dynamic, entertaining, and enlightening experience.
Be sure to register today.
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