Recently I worked hard on an employment application for a job that I felt really fit me. After immersive time in the job prospectus, hours of labor to craft a letter of interest, meticulously molding my resume, and reaching out to supportive people for reference permission, I took a deep breath and submitted the materials. By email, of course.
Based on recent experience, I expected weeks of silence and perhaps never getting a response. Ninety minutes later the search consultant responded with an emphatic “you’re not who we’re looking for.”
My breathe came up short, not because the answer was unexpected (the job was always a long shot), but because it came so quickly and decisively.
Rapid change is all around us. It is hard to catch our breath. Whether it’s an unanticipated response, an unexpected reality, or the life-crushing accumulation of stressors in a complex world, sometimes it’s just hard to breathe!
Breathing is LIFE. Without breath our bodies fail, we cease to exist.
Covid-19 reminds us in heartbreaking ways to pay attention to our lungs, to our breath. We have become even more aware of the significance of breath through the tragic memorialization of Eric Garner’s words: “I can’t breathe.”
At a more metaphorical level, breathing is also an essential leadership practice.
Like our bodies, our leadership lives need rhythms that exchange the toxins and used up resources from work, home, and play for activities, thoughts, and opportunities that bring new energy, nourishment, and joy.
Here are three aspects of breathing for leaders.
Breathing is literal. When directing choirs (pre-pandemic), I always teach singers to breathe better. In every-day life most of us only use about 1/3 of our active lung capacity. We’re shallow breathers. That means that 2/3 of our lungs hold used up stuff and un-accessed oxygen. Singers need ALL of the oxygen to sing really well!
So do we as leaders. We need to get rid of the old air and replace it with the new. Our bodies need to be as healthy as possible, and good oxygen exchange is part of that well-being. It keeps our minds sharper and our emotions more accessible.
Breathing is communal. One of the benefits of singing as a group, whether in a congregation or with a choir or at a concert, is the way it puts us in sync with one another. Perhaps you’ve noticed community forming among a group of total strangers packed into a concert venue. The phrases of songs draw us into rhythms of breath and vocalization that convert us into one large synchronous body. Any activity that causes us to connect on a cellular level is empowering and strengthening.
Forming community isn’t for musicians only; effective leaders facilitate communal breathing. Sometimes we call it “getting people on the same page,” or “group discernment,” or “sharing in a common mission.” I call it breathing together.
Breathing is healing. Space to breathe is the equivalent of space to heal. Healing is about finding a sense of wholeness and creating an environment for restoration. If your pants are too tight, it’s hard to take a good deep breath. Loosen the belt. If life is battering you in ways that make it difficult to breathe, take a break, change your location, step outside for a bit in order to breathe.
Carrying our own personal wounds and/or the wounds of those we lead without opportunities to heal eventually will catch up to us. Those wounds will effect our leadership and can even do permanent harm to us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We make space to breathe so that we can heal.
PRACTICE: Take a moment now.
Sit tall, or better yet, stand up. Get your spine, neck and head in a straight line. Stretch them like someone’s picking you up from the crown of your head. Raise your arms above your head. Drop them at your side. Let your arms and shoulders relax, but don’t allow them to slump.
Breathe in. Deeply.
Expand the air down and out (not up into your neck and shoulders). Feel the expansion around your midsection. Pay attention to your diaphragm.
While breathing in, count slowly to 5.
Hold your breath. Count 2.
Breathe in a little more, entirely filling the lungs. (I call this an over-breath)
Hold.
Slowly exhale while counting to 15. When you think your lungs are empty, exhale a little more.
Repeat the whole process five times. You might vary it by making little puffs of air as you exhale. (If you’re just starting these exercises, modify them if you feel lightheaded or start to hyperventilate!)
The goal is to fully fill your lungs, and make a complete exchange of the CO2 and oxygen.
BREATHE. Deeply. Intentionally. Together.
LEAD. Deeply. Intentionally. Together.
What other properties of BREATHING can you think of? Add your thoughts in the comments below.