1. (Kryptonite for) Anxiety & Ego

Video #1 of 18 in the series: Up Your Mental & Emotional Game (for Trumpet Playing)

English transcript available on: www.AdamRapa.com
You can watch the full series there, and find lots of other goodies!

Some key take-aways from this video:

"Breathing can be both active or passive. And it's a revolving door, the link between breathing and our emotional state. And you can either use your breathing to affect your emotional state, or you can also see a situation where your emotional state affects your breathing."

"...to make sure that you have the self-control, the emotional self-control to roll with the punches as they come at you, and to stay in a healthy enough frame of mind to still respond positively or productively to whatever life throws at you."

"...a breathing practice that is finely tuned and seriously a major point of devotion on your part, everyday, will pay dividends; will get you through any number of challenges."

"But it is what it is, all I can do right now is try my best, so I'm gonna make sure that my emotional state doesn't hijack and sabotage my physical actions."

"The ego can come up with all sorts of ways to rationalize this being the most important moment of your life, and if you don't succeed with flying colors right now, it's gonna be the end of your life as you know it. Obviously, that's bullsh*t, and you gotta let it go."

"That should keep your mind chatter down to a minimum and allow you to stay in the moment, focused on mission number one which is: Being there for the people that are there to hear you."

"...here's what's most important: It's about being there for other people."