The Quickest Way to Calm.

Learn the relaxing breath.

Before a competition, meeting or any other stressful event in life you must bring yourself to calm. Calm will be the centerpiece to all of you successes and open you to increasing challenges. This is a simple tool, takes almost no time, requires nothing special and can be done anywhere. No one will even know you are doing it.

You can do the exercise in any position but to learn it sit with your back straight. Put the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth just behind your upper front teeth. It will stay there through the entire exercise. You'll exhale out of your mouth around your tongue.

• Start with an exhale. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a wind sound.
• Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four (1-2-3-4)
• Hold your breath for a count of seven.(1-2-3-4-5-6-7)
• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.(1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8)
• That's one breath. Inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.
• Keep going in cycles of four, as needed to relax.

Remember: The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. Exhalation takes twice as long as inhalation. Over time your breaths will be longer; for now the ratio of 4:7:8 is key. 

This breathing exercise is a natural calming mechaism for the nervous system. Unlike drugs, which can lose their effectiveness over time, this technique is effective when you first try it, and gains in strenght with practice. Do it everyday a day.

You can use it to kick off relaxation for sleep. By now you know, sleep is the cornerstone to all things.

Get calm. Be awesome.