I go to yoga with my daughter most weeks.  I am the worst yoga practitioner in the country with other participants requesting my attendance to make them look good.  My toes remain resolutely distant from my hands.  What I have found useful though is the concentration on breathing.

Within the class we often focus on the breath and in particular on the pause between breathing in and breathing out and breathing in again.  Just by focusing on that pause it tends to stretch out, your breathing relaxes and you take longer and deeper breaths.  Now, I breathe every day.  Turns out I’m quite good at it – I can do it without even concentrating on it.  I can even do it in my sleep.  But by reflecting on my breathing I can breath better, learn how to control my breath when under duress (usually when cycling up a hill) and improve my general sense of well being.

It is becoming topical to argue against the annual review.  Arguing that you should be reviewing performance all of the time and so there is no need to do it annually.  I agree with the need for ongoing review discussions but I believe there is a great benefit for taking time out to take a deep breath, a bit of a pause and a think.  You may find that something you’ve been doing naturally all year improves  just from the exercise of reflection.

Brendan

www.bowlandsolutions.com