It can often go overlooked, that breathing is actually an incredible tool that can be utilized as a regulator and stimulator of health and wellness.  Our bodies take on the task of breathing automatically.  Due to this automated process, thanks to our nervous systems, we don’t even have to think about breathing, we just do it.

Our careers, no matter what field or direction they may be in, take a toll on us.  There are ups and downs, as well as demands and stress buildup.  When you begin to obtain the basic understanding of the connection between your brain, your nervous system and your breath, you can have the power to reach and maintain a stress-reduced life from the inside to the outside with a more balanced and positive existence.

There are differences in your breathing, if you take the time to notice and be conscious of it.  For example, when you get angry, your breathing gets faster, shorter and somewhat shallow.  This can also occur when you are in fear or heavily stressed.  When you are calm and relaxed, it is more natural to take in longer and deeper breaths.

What this means is that we actually have the ability to take ourselves from that state of stress and bring ourselves into a state of relaxation and calmness.  If you take deep breaths that you can feel down to the abdomen, you will be calming the body and the mind due to the fact that you are slowing your heart rate, which relaxes the nervous system.

So to start practicing today, take a deep breath, inhaling through your nose.  When you exhale, just envision blowing out a candle, with a firm breath from your mouth.  Repeat this a few times.  The beauty of this is that you can do it anywhere and at any time.  Through breathing properly, you will be able to better cope with life’s little stumbling blocks and think clearly to make better decisions.  Stress threatens your health, but breathing can be the key to protecting your health.

Does this describe you?

• Desperately trying to keep your job or business from swallowing you up?
• Totally focused on completing all your daily tasks but never getting through your to do list?
• Working nights and weekends to catch up?
• Stressed? Exhausted?
• Do you find the more you struggle to keep on top of things, the more you sink into the abyss?

I call this career quicksand. Why? Because when you are in this situation with your business or career, you are stuck and I mean really stuck!  The consequences of this are that you are not in the position or frame of mind to move your business or career forward. When you are in career quicksand, you cannot think clearly or objectively. As long as you are totally focused on daily tasks, you do not have the time or energy to be creative. All your energy is expended on daily survival.

What would it take for you to extricate yourself from this trap and begin to think more strategically?

Here are some tips to pull yourself out of the quicksand:

1. At least once a day, take some time to do something totally different from work; anything that will clear you mind. Ideally, scheduling even a few short breaks (10 minutes) during the day helps to keep up your energy and stimulate your creativity.
2. Work with a coach or mentor. This partnership can give you a new perspective on your business and career. The potential to see things more objectively offers a great opportunity to get “unstuck”.
3. Start an Affinity Group at work. Gather a group of like-minded women together on a regular basis to discuss and brainstorm on work place challenges and opportunities.
4. Schedule regular networking meetings (lunch, dinner, coffee) with peers outside of your own company. It’s amazing what wisdom is available from other business owners or women in similar corporate positions.
5. Keep your mind open to new approaches through a variety of resources. There are many insightful and valuable books on business management and leadership. (Let me know if you would like some suggestions). There are also many worthwhile online resources.

The first step to getting “unstuck” is to realize that you ARE stuck and that the consequences of this are detrimental to the growth of your business and career. You simply can’t move forward if all of your energy is focused on daily tasks and survival.

Look for ways to pull yourself out of the quicksand and think strategically about where you want to go and how best to get there.

Here are my top five predictions in website trends. Believe me, there is so much information out there, but as someone who makes a living developing websites (and who has been doing so for the last 10 years), I highly recommend you configure your action plan for actively updating your website.

1) Go Mobile.
Have you created a mobile version of your website yet?

This should be as stripped out, clean code as possible, using basic XHTML tags and providing easy links and easier navigation.

mobisitegalore.com
mobify.me

It is possible, with most CMS systems (content management systems), to easily provide an auto-updated mobile version of your existing website. Ask your web developer for support on this.

2) Geo-location.
The web is moving the world back to your doorstep. Applications, coupons, listings, reviews, and businesses can be as simply found as a click on your mobile phone. Check trends on geo-locating and consider ways to extend your website with a local version, a community listing service, or leveraging Google Adsense and new mobile applications.

3) Open source.
Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla and open source content management systems are leading the way. If you are continuing to pay an ongoing monthly maintenance fee to your web designer, consider switching to a content management system that you can manage in-house. Note: I am a big fan of Drupal and run this as our installation of choice for our upgrading and new clients.

4) Microblogging.
Get used to posting status updates in 140 characters or less.

Twitter is great because of its advanced search function. I take very high advantage of the search capabilities of Twitter to find other green women in business who are interested in the same things I am.

A sample search:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=green+business+women

You can then use the @username tag to send a message to specific people, or “follow” them for their updates.

In Advanced search, you also find Twitter users near specific locations (e.g. green business within 10 miles of Honolulu), which is another wonderful way to network with others in your local community.

http://search.twitter.com/advanced

or type in the following into the advanced search box:
http://search.twitter.com/search

green business near:Honolulu within:50mi

where you replace “Honolulu” with your own city

Cotweet is a service for multiple people using single Twitter accounts (such as for customer service).

There are also external services such as Seesmic.com (which recently acquired Ping.fm) where you can centralize your posts and publish to multiple locations.

5) Social networking.
Do you have a plan? Do you have a presence?
If you don’t have a listing now, when will you get one?
Here is a sample of all the places where I personally attempt to post: http://www.claimid.com/monicadear

Obviously, your job becomes easier when you have a service to aggregate your posts and auto-update to different locations. What about e-mailing directly to your blog? Look into http://www.google.com/search?&q=social+media+tips for other people’s ideas on how to best manage their flow of information.

Over the last year I’ve seen some interesting reactions to social sites. The bottom line, In My Humble Opinion, is that each post you create, or each item you #fb, #linkedin, or tweet is an additional potential source of leads, sharing, and connecting: as a women in business you cannot neglect this area of your outreach.

Having a business of your own is a bit like being a creative writer.  A creative writer loves to ask and answer the question: what would happen if….? What would happen if:

• the title character were a woman instead of  a man
• the title character were 75 years old and slightly deaf
• the title character had a side-kick who was independently wealthy
• all the action took place over the course of 3 days
• the setting was ancient Egypt
• the setting was in the Dark Ages
• the setting was 10 years into the future

A creative writer doesn’t see the “what if” question as risky…rather she sees it as opening doors, possibilities and opportunities.  Without the convention of the “what if” it would be difficult to posit the possible.  The same is true in a business.

Having a business of your own often involves risk and wondering “what if?”  What if:

• you decide to go it alone as a solo-preneur…what are the implications of that?
• you decide to go into business with a partner…what would that look like?
• you limit your business to your local community only…does your community have the population size in your business niche to offer you enough business?
• you decide to have both a local business and an online presence…can you handle the possible case overload?

In building your business asking yourself the “what if I did this or that” kinds of questions can help to direct your creative thinking and help you to evaluate what you really and truly want to do.  Once the business is up and running, there is still risk…still the “what if” questions to ask.  What if:

• you take a vacation…can your business handle your being away from it for 5 days…10 days?
• you become ill…do you have a procedure built into your business to handle the inevitable down days?
• an outside, unforeseen natural or economic catastrophe occurs…do you have contingency plans in place for things like fires, floods and recessions?
• your business becomes too popular…can you turn away clients/customers?
• your business requires a new marketplace…can you retool?

Without risk there is no business; but risk doesn’t have to be thought of as negative.  Rephrased as “what if” questions, risk becomes a way to look anew at your business…and keep you fresh and on your toes.

Forbes.com published a list of the top 20 marketing and social media blogs by women today and WomenOnBusiness.com is included on the list along with some other amazing blogs!  You can follow the link to see the complete list on Forbes.com.

Thank you to all the incredible women who contribute content to WomenOnBusiness.com and thank you to everyone who joins the conversation by leaving comments and sharing the content you find here on your own blogs or through Twitter, Facebook, and so on!  This would be a boring place without all of you!