Your Deepest Breath Yet…
How long can you hold your breath? On this week's podcast episode, "The Deepest Breath: How to move forward" we draw inspiration from the awe-inspiring Netflix documentary. Watching this team of fearless AF divers on their quest to conquer the ocean's abyss, motivated me to record this episode.
Running a small business can feel like a massive ocean sometimes. Dark, silent and full of mental challenges. How does one stay afloat mentally and emotionally?
When the obstacles seem bigger than our faith, how do we hold our breath and take the plunge?
I'll address these questions and more in this episode so let's dive deep, shall we?
Remember that the deepest breath is the one that unleashes our true potential. So, tune in and together, let's dive into the depths of your potential!
00:02:27 Underwater documentary explores breathtaking depths of free diving.
00:05:45 Don't obsess over goals, focus on movement.
00:08:34 I can't control people or the market; only maintain my peace. Surrender, focus, and depend on team.
00:12:16 Vacation revenue drop; teamwork teaches trust. Daring, resilient divers navigate overwhelming challenges with grace.
00:13:59 Cultivate calm, create space, prioritize mental well-being.
Find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email me at hello@lesliedlyons.com.
As Mentioned In The Podcast
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Transcript “Your Deepest Breath”
Leslie [00:00:00]:
Hey, boss. I am Leslie Lyons, your embodied leadership and sales coach, and this is Pleasurable Profits. This podcast is ideal for owners and leaders of tattoo shops, cannabis businesses, movement studios, sex toy shops and other industries too often left out of the leadership conversation. If you're looking for no BS approach to defining your strengths and values, designing a business that supports you, and creating a soul driven and, of course, a pleasurable plan for profitability, then let's get started. Hey, party people. It's Leslie. And welcome to episode number 93 where we are talking about some parallels that I made as I watched this documentary. I don't know if you guys have seen it yet.
Leslie [00:00:58]:
It's called the deepest breath. Now, I'm not going to give away the documentary in case you watch it, which I hope you do, but I really just kind of want to share some wisdom that kind of popped up while I was watching it. So that's what we're going to talk about today. But I'm rude. I didn't even ask you all how you all were doing. How you doing? I'm great. Thank you for asking. Let's jump into this now.
Leslie [00:01:28]:
So the documentary, my sister actually told me about it and I was like, oh, this is something because it's not something I normally would have watched. Okay, number one, I'm scared of the ocean. Can I just tell you all? First of all, I can't swim. Not a single lick. And I tried to learn how to swim for my 40th birthday. Then I signed up to try to learn for my 50th birthday. And so I've just resigned that I'm never going to learn how to swim. Okay? And I have a fear truthfully.
Leslie [00:01:57]:
And there's a phobia. If you know the phobia name, hit me up and let me know what the phobia name is. But there's a fear of large open bodies of waters. Like there is a phobia. And I'm sure I got it because while I like being by water, like the sound of water, the smell of the ocean, I love it. But what I don't love is going in that mug. Like, you will see very few pictures of me ever going in the ocean because I'm just scared of it. I'm like, it's big, it's dark.
Leslie [00:02:27]:
The Lord is massive, and he got things for his own pleasure up under that water that human eyes I don't think were ever meant to see. Okay, so for me, I'm not looking to go into the water. So this is definitely one of those documentaries that I would have skipped. But anywho, I'm so glad I watched it. So just to give you the premise, like I said, I'm not going to spoil the ending for you at all, but to give you the premise of the documentary, it's basically following these free divers. Now, for those of you who might be like me and were today years old when you found out what free diving was. I know what scuba diving is, but free diving is you go down to, like, 300, some OD feet. I think some of these people went to, like, 335ft deep in the water on one single breath.
Leslie [00:03:28]:
Did you hear me? So they got this little pin on their nose that looked like one of them what do you call them? Not hair pins, but clothing pin. That's what it looks like. It looks like a small clothing pin on their nose. They take one deep breath, and they go over 300ft straight down into the ocean. What would make a person want to do this? I just don't get it. But I also know that people are adrenaline junkies. They do things to prove that they can push themselves to certain limits. I get it, and I commend people for being that courageous.
Leslie [00:04:11]:
But, baby, it was terrifying. And the narrator, you know, narrators are amazing. They make it even worse. Like, they tell you what started happening to your body once you get past 30ft, what happens when you get past 60ft, when you get past 100ft? One of the narrators said, your lungs feel the size of a fist. And remember, you're holding your breath. You ain't got no oxygen mask. You ain't got nothing feeding oxygen to you. You are on one single deep breath that you took at the surface of the water.
Leslie [00:04:49]:
And so the story goes on, and it shows this particular woman and I really like that, of course, that they highlighted women, as well as being these free divers, like, the top women in the nation, who hold in the world, not the nation in the world, who hold world records for these free dives. And there was this focus was on one woman in particular. She was younger. She started free diving before she was 18 years old, started competing when she was 18. And she was driven. She was strong, physically strong, mentally strong and driven. Like, she wanted to break every record there was. And the first thing that struck me was her coach told her that even though she was physically strong, she was not meeting her goals.
Leslie [00:05:45]:
Like, she couldn't reach the depths that her body was physically capable of. And when her coach said this, immediately I made a parallel to owning a business, immediately made a parallel to sales. I'm like, that'll preach child. She was like, you are physically capable of doing this, but the more that you focus on that goal, like, being the end all, be all, as opposed to just relaxing and focusing on the movement for the sake of the movement, you'll never reach that goal. And I was like, so many of us as entrepreneurs, so many of us as sales professionals, we get so locked in on a goal, and we're putting all of our energy behind it. We're putting all of our effort behind it. I got to meet this goal. I just got to do it.
Leslie [00:06:47]:
Whereas if we could relax in our surroundings, which is our bodies, if we could trust our bodies, relax into the situation and surrender. That word was used throughout that documentary so many times. When you are in an ocean that is so much more powerful than you, fighting it is futile. Like fighting it is what's going to kill you. You have to surrender to the water. And they started to describe that once they get to that point of surrendering, I think it's about when they're about 100 and something feet deep where the water starts to pull them down and they feel like they're just falling, like they're just flying. They're like, that's the most peaceful thing because the ocean is pitch black. It's completely silent.
Leslie [00:07:45]:
Because remember, they ain't got nothing in their ears. They ain't got none of that. They are literally just diving. And they're like, the ocean is completely silent. They're like, that is the place of surrender and it is the most powerful place in the dive. And I just wonder what would it be like for us to surrender? To not always be fighting, to really just sit back and say, I'm going to bring my best. But at the end of the day, I have to surrender to the fact that I can't control everything. I have to surrender to the fact that I can be there for my employees and my team and give them all the support that I can.
Leslie [00:08:34]:
But I can't control people. I surrender to the fact that I have no control over the market. The only thing I have control over is maintaining my peace. What would that be like when you descend into the darkness, when you descend into silence, when you're faced with challenges that test your resilience, your determination, when you got to focus and depend on your team, can you surrender? And speaking of team, so going back to the documentary, it was also a love story that was baked into the documentary. And it was a love story between the champion, who I was telling you about, this elite athlete, and her safety divercoachlover. When you go on these dives, they have a couple of safety things that they have in place where first of all, you're kind of hooked up to this long line that goes all the way down. So they hook you up with one of those clip things. But they also have safety free divers that can go down to try and get you in case something goes wrong.
Leslie [00:09:59]:
But they can only have one single breath too. So they can't just waste that breath and go down there and get you. Like it ain't that simple. But you have to trust that when you are tired. Because they say the most difficult part of the free dive is not actually the diving down for most divers, it's the coming up. Because now, just like I said earlier, you're fighting against the elements. When they're going down, they're going with the current. They're going with gravity.
Leslie [00:10:32]:
They're going down. But when they're coming up, there's resistance. And now you're tired because you just dove over 100ft. Now you're tired as fuck, okay? And you've got to repel your way back up through that water. And typically, I believe don't quote me, but please watch it. I think they said it's like the last 10 meters is where people get in trouble, like, they run out of breath, and even though they're almost at the end, that's typically when they black out. What's a blackout? I'm so glad you asked. Well, basically, your brain shuts down, and you basically stop breathing, and you've got, like, a two minute window for them to resuscitate you before you start having brain damage.
Leslie [00:11:21]:
And I was like, Damn. Again, parallels to business. Like, have you ever been in a situation where you're just so stressed out that you really feel like you black out? I remember periods and seasons in my business where things were so crazy and so dark, and I was so stressed that I blacked out. Meaning I just didn't even remember what I did some days because I was just so surrounded with darkness. I could relate to that feeling of blacking out. And so they have to rely on their teammates, and that's kind of like the plot twist, guys in the documentary, but they have to rely on their team because when they're about to die, these people jump in and save their lives. And it's just like, man, and that's scary to trust people in that way. It's scary for us to trust people in our business that way, man.
Leslie [00:12:16]:
It's like, I remember not wanting to take vacation because every time I took vacation, my revenue would drop, and I was like, I can't depend on these people for my income, like, for my bread and butter. What was it like to develop teamwork? Oh, this movie teaches so many good lessons because when you're in a dangerous situation, when you're in a volatile situation, you can't handle things alone. You're going to have to learn to trust people. How do you build that level of trust? And so when I just think about all of those things that those daring divers went through, and when we face our own deep waters, when challenges can just feel overwhelming, from meeting targets to handling rejection to striving for success in highly competitive environments, we can navigate through those situations with grace and strength. You need practices in your life, just like the coach told that athlete, where you can surrender and calm down. The most resilient divers had mindfulness practices. You would think that they were just super focused on their physical strength or they were doing crazy things to build up their mental resilience. But no, they were spending time cultivating peace.
Leslie [00:13:59]:
They were spending time cultivating calm. Because in order to be able to think off of that one breath. You have to know how to create space. When your lungs feel the size of your fist, you got to create space in your body, space in your mind. You can't let fear take over. So if these divers can spend just as much time focused on their mental health, on their mindfulness practices, why can't we, as entrepreneurs and salespeople, carve out time for that? Why don't we think of our minds and our emotional well being and our ability to create peace on demand and to create more space as a priority? There's so many other lessons that I could talk about, like risk management, how to handle failure because there were times they failed, and those sorts of things. Watch it for yourself. But I just want to leave you with some thoughts around staying resilient, creating space, creating peace, and taking your deepest breath when things get stressed.
Leslie [00:15:28]:
Because guess what? There might be some times where you got to survive on one breath. And I want you to have the courage to explore the uncharted territories in your life and business. So that's it. If you watch it, please, please let me know if you've enjoyed this episode. Don't forget to subscribe. Leave us a five star rating. If you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Okay? But leave us a five star rating.
Leslie [00:16:00]:
Wherever you listen to this on podcast, follow me on @lesliedlyons on IG and share your thoughts on the documentary. Share your thoughts on my parallels. And until next time, keep diving deep. And remember, you have the power to create your own extraordinary story. Until next time, grace and peace.