Why we don't wait 'til its over to exhale...

I have been practicing yoga for nearly 15 years, which is hard to believe, and still enter the space feeling like I know nothing.

I recently had a breakthrough that is relevant to every area of life and yes, real estate, in my favorite Saturday morning yoga class in Pittsburgh (I’ll tell you if you call me).  We were doing reclined eagle pose.   Want to do it? Ok - hopefully I get this right. 

Lie down on your back and breathe as normal, everything oriented towards the ceiling, and lift both legs up into the air.  Bend your legs, with your thighs making a straight line to the ceiling, your calves at 90 degrees, and the bottoms of your feet flexed, parallel to the wall in front of you. Cross your bent right leg over your bent left leg and, if it is possible for you, wrap the toes of your right foot under the rear of the calf on your bent left leg (imagine a vine).  If it’s not possible, don’t push yourself too hard and just keep the right leg bent over the left. This isn’t about achieving something.  “The moment the breath becomes strained or disturbed, the body’s been pushed too far.” 

Keeping the legs vine-like, bend your arms at 90 degrees like you’re about to do the robot and wrap your bent right arm under your bent left arm, so that the inside of your palms approach, clasping one another. The tips of your right fingers will probably end up closer to the bottom of your left palm, but that’s where it would be headed if your fingers were super long.  Your back might come up off the floor.  Whether it did or not, bring everything to the center so you’re all crunched up (see photo).

And now we breathe and move intentionally, in union with one another.

Inhale slowly as you open the front of the body, increasing distance between legs and arms again as you lower the back away from center and down towards the ground as much as feels good. Pull the knot of your arms up and back, keeping your shoulders down and your fingers pointing behind the crown of your head.  At the same time or as you continue to stretch our your inhale, bring your bent, knotted up legs away from the center of the body, ever closer to the ground in front of and below them but not touching it. 

SIDE NOTE WITH THINLY VEILED REAL ESTATE AGENT METAPHOR: I have never tried to describe this in writing before, but it’s starting to sound uncomfortable. Whether or not you are new to yoga, could you read this a bunch of times and recreate reclined eagle shape yourself?  Yes. Do most people find it a lot more pleasant, safe and supportive to make this shape in a space held by a teacher who knows what they are doing and can guide them through the pose step by step, without asking them to worry too much about what lies ahead, only what is required to do the next right thing? Um, also yes.

OK back to reclined eagle pose. Pause in stillness ever so briefly at the peak of your inhalation, chest cavity and body expanded, before breathing - and moving - again.

Here comes the hard part. Using the air you brought into your lungs while opening the front body, which is generally less physically taxing than what’s about to come, exhale as you bring the still vine-like arms and legs back towards each other and the center of the body, essentially doing a tangled up ab crunch.  Release the air from your lungs while you do the crunch. 

Let me rephrase this so I can just really drill home the metaphor:  inhale when you open up and things are a little easier so that you can exhale when it’s hard.  It is extremely physically difficult to bring breath into the lungs while the front of the body is compressed.

It took me 15 years to figure out that exhaling isn’t only about relaxing, it’s something our bodies are designed to do to make the hard thing easier.  And perhaps even more important, if we're trying to inhale during the hard part, the hard part is even harder. Why do that if you can avoid it?

You might not be reeling from this in the same way I was, but I've returned to this insight probably hundreds of times since it first hit me a few weeks ago.  How might I set up my life, my work, my calendar, my parenting, my responsibilities as a citizen and community member, to bring breath into the lungs when I'm open -- so that I can exhale through hard things? 

To bring this into to real estate, every transaction is going to have moments to inhale and stretch, and moments to exhale through things that are difficult.  We see our role as both advisors and facilitators, sharing our knowledge and expertise with you, and holding space for you and your people throughout.  The sooner we begin our work together, no matter where you are in the process, your thinking, or your journey, the easier it will be for us to establish that rhythm of expanding and compressing, inhaling and exhaling, relaxing and enduring.  We view this as a great honor, and undertake it with humility and compassion.