Now that we’re more familiar and have had some experience working with the 3-minute breathing space practice, we’re going to invite it into our lives in a very particular way: this time, we’re going to use it in response to something that may be causing us stress in our lives.
What’s great is that we can either use this practice to prepare for something we expect will be stressful, or we can employ it after something stressful has happened, something we perhaps couldn’t anticipate.
Can you think of an event in your life that feels like some unfinished business? It could be an encounter that’s already happened, a tough conversation that you need to have in the coming days, an argument you had with someone last week. This doesn’t have to be huge event. In fact, I recommend you choose something that is fairly low in intensity. If you consider a 10-point scale of stress, with one being absolutely no stress and 10 being the most stress you’ve ever experienced, choose something that’s closer to a three, not one that would rank closer to a nine.
Take a moment to hold this event in mind—identifying who’s involved, identifying what happened.…