Deep Breath In by Brady

Deep Breath In by Brady - February 2026 Scholarship Essay

You have 5 tests this week. 3 of them are on the same day, and none of them are easy. You have to work the night before every test, and you don’t know how you’re going to do it. This is how my Sunday nights used to go. I would get into bed and close my eyes, just to be bombarded with anxiety about the coming week. Even though I knew I could get it done and was confident in my abilities, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the worst-case scenario would happen. This, in turn, caused me to procrastinate my homework and actively wait till the last moment to do it, just because I was afraid that I couldn’t do it. I knew that I needed to make a change, and I knew it needed to be mental. I had just gotten a book about breathwork and decided to see if my answer lay in its pages. Luckily for me, it did. Reading about monks who could control their body heat and ordinary people hiking through the mountains barefoot, I realised that I needed to look at my brain differently. I used to feel like it was my brain's fault for the anxiety that I was facing, but I realised it was my mind. My conscious thoughts of anxiety were hindering my ability to even start on things, let alone finish them. Now, every night I lie on the ground and just breathe. In for five seconds, out for five seconds, for as long as I need to feel calm. The clutter in my brain is completely gone by the end, and I’m able to finally sleep without worry of the coming week. I feel more centered in my mind and body, and the internal dialogue of worry has slowly but surely faded. I actually feel excited to get my homework done because that’s just one less thing to think about, giving me calm where there used to be anxiety. It’s so hard to feel like yourself when you’re constantly stressed out and thinking about the future. My breathing routine has allowed me to be present in my mind, making me the person I know I can be both academically and emotionally.