Shane Lowry, Michael Caine and the Art of Performance...

Shane Lowry, Michael Caine and the Art of Performance…     


 The past week has given us two epic hurling matches and a magnificent achievement by an Irish golfer.
 
All this has given rise to conversations about performance.
 
One recent conversation highlighted the levels of skill and accomplishment by people today. There has been a huge improvement in performance at all levels. And it doesn’t matter where it’s in the area of business, art, or sport or anything else.
 The levels of skill in all areas have improved dramatically. They are now taken for granted.
 
Recently I heard an interview with Michael Caine the actor, in which he spoke about manipulating a state of relaxation in spite of feeling  nervous, apprehensive, fearful.
 
He realised early in his career that in order for him to access his resources, his abilities, and his talents, he needed to be relaxed. And he found a way to achieve this in spite  of the nervousness and apprehension  that may have been prevailing. 
 
A foremost golfing coach in the UK, Jane Storey, spoke of the composure achieved by Shane Lowry, and how he used it to achieve his aim and win the Open. She also spoke of how Rory McIlroy appeared to have reacted to his own performance in the game, and how his game appeared to deteriorate as a direct consequence of his own reaction.
 
 This coach shows her students how to be relaxed enough to use themselves to the best of their ability.
 
Interestingly, she now declares the most effective way to achieve this is by using Breathing practices, and has incorporated Breathwork as a major factor in her teaching.
 
The global  explosion in interest in using our breathing patterns to determine our mental and emotional states is now without question.
 
Science now supports what we have all believed all along; that a healthy body promotes a healthy mind, and a healthy emotional stability.
 
 Breath work is fast becoming a stable system in the field of human performance in any endeavour. Any endeavour at all.
 
It may do you well to revisit your breathing notes, study them, and apply them.
 
You may not win the Open, or get the leading  part in the next Hollywood blockbuster, but you’ll greatly enhance the chances of achieving what you’re at…!
 
Stay well. Keep breathing