Three Deep Breaths: Finding Power and Purpose in a Stressed-Out World

121 Pages·2006·0.3 MB·English

by  Thomas F. Crum

Three Deep Breaths
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three
deep
breaths
Finding Power and Purpose
in a Stressed-Out World
A
Thomas Crum
Berrett–Koehler Publishers, Inc.
San Francisco
aBKLifebook
Three Deep Breaths
Copyright © 2006, 2009 by Thomas Crum
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distrib-
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ten permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations
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Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
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First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-389-7
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-630-0
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60509-291-1
2009-1
I have made every effort to locate the creator or origin of the phrase
“Snowmen fall from heaven unassembled” with no luck whatsoever. This
phrase is used by everyone from artists and writers to t-shirt vendors and
needlepoint pattern sellers. The quote is not my own creation; I present it to
readers as a beautiful and insightful piece of advice. If anyone knows, and
can provide evidence of the origins or originator of the phrase, I will be more
than happy to credit him or her in reprints and other editions of this book.
Cover design:Karen Marquardt
Interior design and production:Wilsted and Taylor Publishing Services
To the Mystery
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Contents
Foreword
by Mark Victor Hansen
ix
Acknowledgments
xv
The Wrinkle
1
The Lift
7
The First Breath
13
Centering
23
A Master Teacher in Disguise
33
The Second Breath
41
Possibility
51
The Third Breath
57
The Mystery
69
The Journal
77
Practice, Practice, Practice
87
Afterword
93
About the Author
97
Foreword
The World Health Organization has called stress a world-
wide epidemic. Surveys show that 75 to 90 percent of all
visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related condi-
tions! Job stress alone is costing us a fortune. According to
a report from the American Institute of Stress, U.S. busi-
nesses pay 300 billion dollars a year in job-related stress
costs and that figure is expected to rise in the future.
Science says that stress occurs whenever a significant
change happens in your mind or body, or in the environ-
ment in which you live. It could have a positive or negative
source—going on a vacation or having a fight with a col-
league, buying a new home or being late for an appoint-
ment.Let’s face it. In this ever-changing world of increased
complexity, information overload, new technologies, time
crunches, and relationship struggles—there will bestress. As
you will discover in this parable about a man crazed by the
complexity of modern life, we have a choice. We can allow
stress to gnaw at our minds and bodies all the way to the
doctor’s o~ce, or we can see it as an opportunity to become
wiser, stronger, and more flexible, like an elite athlete stress-
ing his body in daily workouts.
ix