What if I told you the solutions you are looking for are not where you think they are.

In fact, they are leading you further away than bringing you closer.

Welcome back to another episode of the Internal Journey, I’m your host Kam Knight, author of several books in the area of mental and human performance. Each week, we work together to uncover the root of your internal resistance to unlock your full potential.

Since I really enjoy it, I signed up for a class to improve my skills.

From the class, I was expecting to learn all sorts of techniques like flagging, drop knee, or dyno.

However, that’s not how the class started!

Taking a few breaths before starting the climb and making sure to continue breathing while climbing.

At first, I thought "how much can breathing really help?"

I was looking to climb harder levels, and was convinced I needed to learn techniques and methods.

I didn’t realize how often I unconsciously held my breath when approaching a difficult hold.

Doing so would create tension and anxiety, which made it harder to execute the move.

Not to mention, breathing is what helps metabolize food to energy, and when I was not breathing, my body wasn’t producing enough energy.

Just by focusing on my breath, I was able to climb more, for longer, and more difficult routes.

I do and love yoga, and I can’t tell you how many times the teachers have stressed the importance of breathing.

But I never paid attention to them, thinking my challenges came from a lack of strength and flexibility.

When I would become anxious or nervous, people would tell me to breathe.

Again, I thought how could my life long anxiety be overcome by something as simple as breathing?

For much of my life, I was not a big water drinker, and as a result, I’ve had tremendous anxiety, muscle tension, mood swings, and lack of focus.

So much so, I couldn’t imagine it coming from something as simple as not drinking enough water.

I thought I needed expensive medication, complicated surgeries, exotic treatments, or magical cures and solutions.

And I traveled the world to seek such things.

I’ve been sort of an over doer. I wouldn’t say over achiever but rather an over doer.

I graduated high school with essentially 5 years worth of credits, and college with essentially dual degrees in accounting and finance.

In the corporate world, I felt the need to be both an accountant and computer programer at the same time.

As an author and coach, I’ve written a dozen books, produced half dozen courses, and so much more content.

For some reason I thought the world was difficult, and success and solutions were difficult to achieve.

As a result, I veered toward the complicated and difficult, when the easy would have been enough.

In fact, the easy was often enough, or necessary and essential to do the harder and more complicated.

But since I couldn’t do the harder or complicated, I sought harder and more complicated solutions.

If you're stuck or struggling, you might be complicating things for yourself.

Instead of chasing the hard and difficult, seek the simple.

For example, if you are unhappy, maybe you don’t need expensive toys and luxuries, but more walks in nature, conversations with friends, and less social media..

If you have anxiety, maybe you don’t need expensive drugs and medications, but to breath more, drink more water, and cut down on the news

If you have health issues, maybe you don’t need expensive surgeries and treatments, but to eat more raw fruits and vegetables, stretch and exercise regularly, and look for alternative cures.

If you want success, maybe you don’t need to chase so many degrees and credentials and develop expertise in one area.

If you want to be liked, maybe you don’t need fancy clothes or cars, but just to improve your communication and like yourself first.

Stop looking for solutions where they are not, and stop doing more of what is not working.

Lester Levenson said “truth is simple, if it were complicated, 

everyone would get it.”

Alright, this is Kam Knight of the internal journey, make sure to hit that like and subscribe, and leave a comment. Until next week.

Kam