Deep Breath

Have you ever been overwhelmed with the trials, obstacles & daily routine of life or have you been stressed out over a job interview, responsibility or challenge? Well I just finished a training two weeks ago that addressed these issues & how to stay focused as well as sane so I will give you some tips I learned.
I have been to this training twice before over ten years & was looking forward to the same instructor & the "pearls of wisdom" she presented in her training. The company is called SUNDOOR & the instructor who founded the company about 25 years ago is named Peggy Dylan. She happens to live fairly close so she offers local trainings when she is here, while most of the year she travels the world doing these trainings & firewalks.
She is the main person who introduced firewalks into American culture although they are & have been done for centuries all over the world. Yes this is the burn a 1/2 cord of wood & spread the red hot coals over a 15 to 20 square foot area & then walk across them without being burned (at least that is the goal)haha.
To begin the training this time, Peggy had an illustration of a young man that was thinking about a tree where he enjoyed going to work out problems & unwind from stress. While walking to this tree he finds a thicket of thorn bushes & thistles which prohibit his progression. Does he stop & go home because the obstacle is to large or does he find a way through the thistles or around the bushes? once he finds a way through the obstacle, he finds himself by a beautiful stream full of fish & it reminds him of when he was younger & his grandmother took him fishing. He remembers how much he enjoyed that time of his life but what did he do? He lost focus on what he wanted to accomplish & that was to get to his tree so that he could work out some problems.
You can say that having good thoughts isn't really bad & you are right but what is bad is that the young man lost focus & when we lose focus we don't accomplish anything or if we do, it is less than what it could be.
One of the tips for dealing with obstacles is to stop everything & take 3 deep breaths because oxygen helps relieve stress & helps us think more clearly & if we focus on those breaths, we take our mind off of the obstacle.
We need to focus on the rewards, the goals & what we want to achieve in life & not on the obstacles or the distractions.
One of the excercises about half of the class participated in was to take a target arrow from a bow & arrow, you then place the tip into the soft part of your throat, under your chin & then stick the feather end into a pre drilled hole in a board that is half way through the board & becomes a holder for the feather end of the arrow. Another person holds the board study & you lunge forward, hopefully breaking the arrow in two pieces.
This excercise teaches that if you focus you can accomplish anything but if you lose focus you will have a very sore throat.
After discussion on focus & on objectives we went outside to the pile of red hot coals & then we focused on what we were trying to accomplish, which was reaching the other side unburned. We would take 3 deep breaths & focus on what we wanted to achieve. taking our mind off of the obstacle & then walk across the coals with no problem & no burned feet.
Maybe these excercises are extreme but the point of my comments is to stay focused in life & don't be distracted by obstacles or fear.
Overcoming obstacles begins with a few deep breaths, focus & determination.