Have you ever simply watched and felt a bird taking flight….being present to every nuance of wing, body, air, sound….those precious moments just before the launch? Swept with awe at this natural way to travel from one place to the next could be so filled with grace and strength.
Inhale remembering that this is natures way of receiving the best of what the body needs…..like a bird preparing for flight taking in everything that will sustain it during lift off…expanding soft belly, ribcage and back body ….resting in the pause to take it all in…..exhaling into pure fluid motion, lengthening as if the breath is soaring on a cushion of air that always promises to be there for the next inhale after the pregnant pause.
How much we take for granted with simply breathing from one moment to the next of our lives here. Taking the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh when he says, “smile, breathe and go slowly” into the fullness of any single moment and falling into the rapture of a full breath in flight – ease filled, fluid and resting in the biology of what gives life.
Take this moment now and be deeply grateful for your breath as the inhale slowly prepares for launch, pauses in the up sweep of expanded wings, soars on the exhale, and drops back to Earth during the grounded pause. Breathing meditation. Who wouldn’t smile…..?
For those interested in receiving private sessions please contact Gaye at: JoyfulGaye@NaturalPassages.com. Travel to your location in the U.S. or globally is available. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
“Did you know that you aren’t really breathing? It is the planet’s atmospheric pressure that sends breath into the body. With the process we call breathing, our body simply changes its shape in such a way that the pressure in the chest cavity is lowered, thus permitting air to be pushed into the body during inhalation. During passive breathing, as when sleeping, it is the universe that breathes for us. On the exhalation, we do nothing; the body tissues that have stretched during inhalation simply spring back to their original shape.” Anna Hunt
When we consider that the cosmos is doing our breathing for us it reflects an unlimited potential for freedom. The deep interconnection with everything around and beyond us feeds and nourishes our individual and interconnected lives at a level so vast that it is rather mind boggling. Even the trees participate as the lungs of the Earth!
Imagine that when you are asleep (and awake!) there is nothing that you are having “to do”, but instead are gifted with the experience of complete freedom and support in simply being. You are being kept alive and vibrant by forces beyond your control, ones that are intimately collaborating on your behalf.
The oxygen in your blood powers your metabolism, circulation and your ability to heal. Decrease the levels in oxygen and you will be prone to illness, mental/emotional instability, and weak physical and mental performance.
You receive air and you give it back again without any effort on your part. The eternal circle of giving and receiving born out of the freedom of living in this human body.
Since we have this much freedom within this crucial biological action that keeps us alive and vibrant, then there is no reason not to live within our fullest potential by expressing that unique, rich, juicy soul purpose here and now – to acknowledge that the natural world and the much larger cosmos is collaborating to keep us alive.
If you were given a gift of breath from the Earth/Universe as basic as this wouldn’t you do something with the freedom that this gives you to play in and reciprocate?
For those interested in receiving private sessions please contact Gaye at: JoyfulGaye@NaturalPassages.com. Travel to your location in the U.S. or globally is available. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
I was being asked to “drop the body” and I felt rebellion brewing up under the surface. The well meaning yoga teacher was attempting to point out the many ways in which we contract our bodies in fear or barricade ourselves from the assumed trauma which we believe will invariably reach us in the next moment or two. In fact, this protection, shutting down, hiding and breath holding has taken up residence in so many of us without our conscious awareness.
The “rebellion” that I felt came from many years of being within meditative and spiritual communities that encouraged us to “drop our bodies” or “leave our bodies” in order to become “enlightened” or reach the state of Samadhi or pure consciousness apart from the mind (and body). Since I inhabit a creative woman’s body this time around and am extremely connected to the natural world this always made no sense to me.
Spending many years making myself “wrong” for feeling as I did I would return over and over to a practice that had no grounding – or if the truth be know “meaning” for me. It was easy for me to access those “higher states of spiritual consciousness” however my body was begging me to not leave it behind and to inhabit the “soul” of my being which can be a little messy and definitely divinely feminine!
Take a good long look at Alex Gray’s famous image above and note that this being is not only completely present in body, but also interconnected with the earth and all elements. We also see this in the image of Buddha below and within the quote from an influential and famous ascetic-philosopher of the 20th century Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (1906-1993) who was known as an innovative re-interpreter of Buddhist doctrine and Thai folk beliefs. Buddha’s right hand touching the earth informs us that without using any words, the Buddha calls on the Earth to bear witness. This “earth mudra” is a beautiful example of the integration of “embodied cognition” and a respect for and celebration of the divine feminine, creative embodied presence.
“The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon, and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees, and the Earth. When we realize that the world is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise — then we can build a noble environment. If our lives are not based on this truth, then we shall perish.” –Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
The times we live in are requesting – no demanding – that we embody and perhaps redefine the concept of samadhi – to acquire integration, or wholeness, or truth within the awareness of deep interconnection or “being” with all that is. This means staying in the body and integrating it as an amazing vehicle from which we can serve others and bring our own wisdom, talents, creativity and gifts. This means remembering that we are the earth and all elements so deeply interconnected that it would blow our minds if we could really see and feel it!
“All is one” – a non-dualistic frame of reference for relationship and cooperation. This means taking action from a fully integrated body inhabiting the miracle of breath that moves in and out from a universal source that gives life to everything and everyone in the cosmos. Ubuntu – essential interdependence. The Divine Feminine in partnership with the Divine Masculine.
Everything is energy. The blueprint that we came in with at birth is fully integrated at this deep level of Source – deeply relaxed, open and available with access to an unlimited source of energy. After years of living in this body we have somehow managed to cover up this innate blueprint with layers and layers of protection, assumptions, beliefs, past traumas, and hiding.
This is not a “bad thing” – it simply is a state of being for survival that we have accepted and perpetuate in our day to day life moments. This is what my yoga teacher meant by “dropping the body” – simply being aware of and then letting go of anything that is in the way of living from your natural state of being.
Fully inhabiting the breath and clearing away patterns that block this way of being is essential for living life in the deepest and most creative expression that we came in with – resonance with life. Neglecting the “brain” of the intellect, the heart, the gut, our animalistic rhythms and even the minutest of cells within our body will only bring us to separation from ourselves, others, the natural world and the entire cosmos.
True belonging is embodied, collaborative and cooperative. We are evolving into Universal Humanity. Take your place….
For those interested in receiving private sessions please contact Gaye at: JoyfulGaye@NaturalPassages.com. Travel to your location in the U.S. or globally is available. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:http://gayeabbott.com/books/
How you breathe is the way in which you live your life. If this statement is true, then how would you like to breathe? Shallow and restricted or full bodied and naturally?
Use a focus each week for the entire year to promote the vibrant aliveness that is your natural birth right!
When you are next out in the woods you may come across some ancient ones. You know who they are for it almost feels as if they are telling you the secrets of the ages. As you breathe in the air around them images come to mind of lives long past and creatures still present – circling round, sniffing your presence as if to determine just what kind of being you are.
It is the ancient ones that remind us of who we are in our fullest expression. That ask us to lay down our fears and breathe life into the creative impulse that quickens in us as it has in them for hundreds of years.
Our aging faces and bodies look gladly upon these ancients before us for we recognize the lines, crevices, textures, twists and turns of life well lived – a breathing, pulsing and at times mysterious Source of life that speaks to the expanse of creative potential and interconnection.
Next time you are in the woods remember to share a Breathing Space with the ancients, for they will hold you captive with their tales…… while giving and receiving the breath of life….
Thank you to Breath of Green Air for this magical and beautiful post! Gaye
Deep in the old woods of Roslin Valley there live two very ancient tree ents. In the green shaded light of the summer woods you can make out their limbs and faces, which have grown here for over 400 years. In fact they have stood here for so long that time has gathered in a shadowy mist around its branches, pausing time and place. A deep velvet hush hangs over the hollow and everything present holds its breath afraid to wake the dozing giants, descendants of Roman immigrants 2,000 years ago.
If you venture close enough, you can look up into the branches where antlered wooden deer run free through the field of leaves. With their horned heads held high they keep watch over the paths leading to the old tree creatures body. Among the moonlight these deer hide from Odins Wild Hunt, as they have since time began. All…
Gaye Abbott, RYT assists individuals to drop the layers that cover the natural innate blueprint we came in with and reveal, through a combination of evolutionary energy work, Jin Shin Jyutus, Reiki and breath re-patterning, the larger purpose and co-creative expression that we are here for.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:
BREATHING SPACES 