Your Breath Matters
All day long, your breath matters. How often do you think about how you breathe?
A lot of my work has centered around having a breathing practice and how it affects our core – body connection.
For more on a breath pattern to support core engagement, see this video.
When I first meet someone, one of my first questions is: What is your breathing practice?
Most of the time, I get a blank stare. Unless, of course, the client has been in yoga, Pilates, or an artistic practice, such as music or theatre.
And even so, many people don’t link this incredible Truth: the breath is essential to mind, body, and spirit. The breath is essential to the function of the body’s connection to mind and spirit. The breath and deliverance of that breath is the difference between living and dying, but also the experience of living fully.
Over the last 2 years, we have had to thinking about breathing a lot.
And I can’t help but think that’s one of the profound messages of COVID-19. PAY ATTENTION to your breath. Practice it. Honor it.
One of the practices for lung issues during and following COVID-19 is breathing practice. Practice. Inflating the lungs.
But deeper than that, practicing inflating the lungs and actually using the diaphragm (which is dormant in a lot of people) changes the operation of the brain internally. It changes brain waves connected to emotions.
Constricted breath is connected to anxiety and depression, as well as rage and fear. Breath flow is connected to a feeling of peace and tranquility. And this is no small thing.
Nor is it a small thing to recognize that we all, collectively, really do need to TAKE A BREATH.
In connection to the divine, you can believe what you want, but every spiritual practice incorporates a breath practice; one that helps with focus or openness. Many people in many spiritual realms would say that the breath IS the connection between body, mind, and spirit. And how lucky we are while we live to have that ability to make that connection.
I think if we can link our gratitude for that breath to our acknowledgement of what breath does for us physically, that we can bridge a lot of gaps. That instead of coming at every issue with constriction that we come with it with breath and openness, that everything begins to change and shift.
That maybe that’s the whole point.
Breathwork meditation HERE