Breathing Room

This past week, I taught at a writing conference, and on the first day, standing in front of a class full of students, I found myself gasping, behind on my breathing, struggling to not sound like I was panting. Distracted by my need to get my breathing under control, I drew a couple of controlled breaths and brought myself back to center. It’s been a while since I’ve felt that familiar stress response to being in front of a crowd, but it didn’t take long before I settled into myself and the teaching that I’ve grown so familiar with over the last twenty years took over.