“Have You Ever Been in a Situation Where You Couldn’t Breathe?”

 

According to my mother, I spent the first year of my life in an oxygen tent. Having been born in the Ohio River Valley, I experienced severe, life threatening asthma. I could barely breathe most of the time!

Growing up I was sick many times a year with asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia. During that time, it was just beginning to dawn on professionals how parents smoking around babies could affect their health.

Inhalers didn’t exist back then.

Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn’t breathe and thought you might die? I’ve experienced it many times.

If you have experienced it, you know the anxiety that comes up. Even as a child, I had to learn how to manage anxiety while carefully controlling my breath until the episode past.

By the time I was a teenager, I could handle a life threatening asthma event with virtually no anxiety. It had become automatic. Most of what I have taught as a counselor and coach I learned from those years.

My mother remarked many times in my life, “*@%$# it, John, you’re SO patient!” As if that was a bad thing? Having a calm response to a threat became a habit. Yes, it can be done.

Taking personal responsibility for my response was the first step. No one could do it for me. Having a relationship with God from an early aged helped a lot, too.

It wasn’t until later that I learned that I was actually harnessing what is now called, “The Power of Intention”. The Power of Intention is something we all possess. 

Applying the Power of Intention has helped me to handle many difficult situations and break out of a self defeating life script that would have kept me from being who I am meant to be.

Together, we’ll explore more about this power in the coming posts. One of my teachers used to say, “Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut so no flies will get in.” Keep your eyes open for the next post!”