Free Shaken Up by Alex Morgan

jaw. Notice any places that are tense. It’s okay. Just let the tension go.”
    At first I felt really silly, lying out in my backyard and trying to picture sunlight washing through my body. I felt my leg twitch, and I nervously began to tap it, but Zoe’s voice was so melodic that I began to relax and not feel so self-conscious. In fact, as she kept talking about the light moving through my entire body, I felt like I might drift off to sleep.
    When she finally ended at my feet, she said, “Picture all of the tension in your body draining out through the bottom of your feet. It’s gone, and you’re totally rested and peaceful.”
    I breathed in and out, slowly and peacefully. I had never felt so relaxed in my life!
    â€œNow picture yourself on the soccer field. You’re in the middle of a game. You’re surrounded by your teammates and your opponents. The ball is being passed to you.”
    I tried to follow along, imagining myself at a game. It was tough to do. It was kind of hard for me to be creative or imaginative. So I tried instead to think about a real game. The last one where I’d played so terribly popped into my head. We were once again facing the Grizzlies. Kristin was passing the ball to me, and I was racing to receive it. I froze as I thought about what had really happened. In my eagerness I had overshot the defenders, which had led to me being offsides.
    â€œNow, don’t think about yourself or your fear of making a mistake. Think of your true purpose on the field. To be part of a team and to contribute something valuable to that team. It’s not just about you. You’re part of this great machine. Everyone is doing their part. Don’t scare yourself with what might go wrong. Picture everything going right.”
    In my imagination I was racing to get that pass. I looked around the field and spotted my teammates, saw how we were all working together, whether it was on defense,midfield, or, like me, as a forward. I slowed my pace and backed up, catching the ball with my foot instead of overshooting the Grizzlies’ defense. The defender came at me, ready to swipe the ball from me, but I maneuvered around her and saw a clear shot at the goal. I took the shot, and the ball landed squarely in the net, inches from the goalie’s outstretched fingers. This time the whistle blew to signify a goal, not to signify me being offsides. My teammates hugged me, and we cheered.
    â€œI did it, Zoe!” I told her, my eyes still closed as I lay on the lawn. “I made the goal and I didn’t go offsides this time.”
    â€œAwesome!” Zoe said. “Now, whenever you’re ready, you can open your eyes and sit up.”
    I felt just like one of those clouds in the sky, light and fluffy. As I sat up, I stretched slowly.
    â€œI think I feel too relaxed now, Zoe,” I shared with her. “It will be hard to play soccer like this.”
    Zoe nodded. “It’s true. You don’t want to calm yourself too much before a game, because that nervous energy serves a purpose too. Try doing that exercise the night before a game, right before you go to bed. To get the adrenaline flowing again before we kick the ball around, we can try a stimulating breathing exercise.”
    Zoe showed me how to do this rapid inhale and exhale. I had to keep my mouth closed and breathe through my nose. Instead of long, deep breaths, I took rapid, quick ones.
    I tried, but my nose made a really weird snorting noise as I tried to mimic Zoe’s short breaths. My hand flew up to cover my nose. “I sound like a pig!” I laughed.
    â€œOink, oink!” Zoe joked. “That’s what it’s supposed to sound like! We’ll call this the Three Little Pigs breathing exercise. The goal is for three in-and-out breaths per second. But we’ll try it for only ten seconds the first time, before we go back to normal breathing.”
    I tried it again, this time