The Lessons of Murmuration

This past week I was fortunate to have come across a video that took my breath away with wonder.  Wonder and awe at the amount of interconnection that is present in our everyday moments.  Most often we overlook this and don’t pause to consider that even the next breath that we take will affect every single living thing on this beautiful planet of ours.

The following was written by Brandon Kiem on “Wired Science” about this stunning display by thousands of starlings :

Video of a massive starling flock turning and twisting over a river in Ireland has gone viral, and with good reason. Flocking starlings are one of nature’s most extraordinary sights: Just a few hundred birds moving as one is enough to convey a sense of suspended reality, and the flock filmed above the River Shannon contained thousands.

What makes possible the uncanny coordination of these murmurations, as starling flocks are so beautifully known? Until recently, it was hard to say. Scientists had to wait for the tools of high-powered video analysis and computational modeling. And when these were finally applied to starlings, they revealed patterns known less from biology than cutting-edge physics.

Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.

At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple. When a neighbor moves, so do you. Depending on the flock’s size and speed and its members’ flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes. What’s complicated, or at least unknown, is how criticality is created and maintained.

It’s easy for a starling to turn when its neighbor turns — but what physiological mechanisms allow it to happen almost simultaneously in two birds separated by hundreds of feet and hundreds of other birds? That remains to be discovered, and the implications extend beyond birds. Starlings may simply be the most visible and beautiful example of a biological criticality that also seems to operate in proteins and neurons, hinting at universal principles yet to be understood.”

Take a look at this video and notice what you feel as you witness it:

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

An intimately choreographed dance which cannot be explained merely by science.  This is the miracle of interconnection on display for us to see instead of just feel.  As the air holds these birds in a dance of wholeness and energy the breath of the women below witnessing this miracle is contained within the same air as the birds.

How do we explain these phenomena?   Perhaps we just remember that it is the same vibration that holds us in deep interconnection as well.  We are just as much a part of this murmuration as they are to us.  We have just forgotten….

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The Miracle of Life Breathing

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the earth in the present moment;  

to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.

– Thich Nhat Hanh


LIFE BREATHING

All around us everything is breathing
Listen carefully
for you may miss the soft exhale
of the flower on the vine.
Or the inhale of rich brown soil
from the earthworm beneath your foot.

Butterfly wings waft the air
towards you as an offering
While bird songs are heard
in a series of exhales
As the tree that shelters
releases a leaf to the ground

Chimes move in the breeze
creating the sound of the breath
in notes sung in tune
with the expansion and contraction
of the Earth – all in union with
your next inhale….. and exhale

Be present to life breathing around you
mindful of the artful ways that
breath pulses among the
minutest of cells and atoms
woven amidst the field of being
that captures each one of us within the next inhale

All breathing for and with each other
An exchange of intimacy that
connects us in levels so deep
that even the whale in the ocean depths
senses into the next breath
that you will take.

Be still for just a moment and listen
to the symphony of breath
that fills every moment
with the exquisite pleasure
of being Alive Now.  Life is breathing.
Listen….listen

~Gaye Abbott/2011

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Over the many years that I have spent in the study and practice of meditation and imagery I have never come across something with so much depth and potential for deepening and relaxing the mind and body.  

In Sanctuary Creation Richard Cawte’s gentle voice and beautifully detailed imagery take you down into a sensual world of nature where color, breath, and beauty activate all of the senses and drop you into a depth of being from which you can discover what it is like to fully embody your life’s moments.  

What greater tool for daily life than something like this that can be activated and created within you at any time!”   

~ Gaye Abbott, Registered Yoga Teacher

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Obstacles to Simply Breathing

Just fresh out of my favorite Sunday morning yoga class the peace, stillness and resonance of life energy are still palpable.  During this last month it has been my “job” to release as much of the contraction and holding as possible that has built up over the last 4 years while employed in a job that was not in alignment with my heart and soul.

It continues to amaze me how much tension and holding that is perpetually present in our bodies.   These are patterns built up over time.  So….do you have an elephant sitting on your chest?  Or perhaps a boa constrictor wrapping itself around your belly?  No probably not, but then it may feel like that when actually putting attention on the quality of your breath, the tension in your body, or whether you are even breathing at all!

What are the barriers or obstacles to a full natural breath?  This post would be much too lengthy if all were listed and discussed, so let’s just get down to the core of things.  There is an all too pervasive implant within us that wasn’t there when we first entered into the air breathing world.

That belief system is “I am essentially flawed”.  From that place comes a leaving behind of the awareness and practice of our wholeness, and at the same time a journey of struggle towards striving to be “perfect”. In yoga this is called dukha which means misery, unhappiness, and pain.

“Ring the bells, it still can ring.  Forget your perfect offering.  There is a crack in everything.  That is how the light gets in.”  -Leonard Cohen

As we travel further away from our essential heart based nature and senses we enter the world of dukha.  From this place comes a holding in areas of our physical body all fueled by fear and the false belief that we are not good enough exactly the way we are.

The Hindu religion has an elephant headed God called Ganesha who represents the remover of obstacles. What I learned recently is that Ganesha always has one of his tusks slightly broken off.

When in Bali, Indonesia several years ago I bought an amazing carving of Ganesha and when I received him via shipping from Bali I noticed that he had a tusk broken.  At the time I thought it was mishandling in the packing and shipping process….and now 5 years later I realize that this is the representation of the perfect imperfection that we all are and a reminder to look beyond form.

“Acceptance of the somewhat funny looking elephant-headed man as the divine force stills the rational mind and its doubts, forcing one to look beyond outer appearances. Thus Ganesha creates the faith to remove all obstacles, forcing one to look beyond form, removing doubts and pointing out the spiritual side of everything.”

Coming full circle this post is now an invitation to come back to the senses and out of the mind.  To move towards flourishing and away from the pain of dukha.  Our planet is going through a tremendous shift right now and the quality of feeling “at home” inside of ourselves is essential to let go of the holding onto of old deeply engrained patterns that keep us – and everyone else – stuck. Humanity yields to the wisdom of nature, the heart, and the senses – and the breath deepens.

I will end with an observation from my brother who called me today.  He was incredulous that he was the only one riding the waves out in the ocean on a summer weekend in San Diego.  He just couldn’t understand how people there seemed to have forgotten the simple pleasure of getting in the ocean and being with the powerful, wonderfully wild and fluid water – letting go into the sensuality of simply being.

Simply being removes the obstacles to simply breathing.  Enhance your breath.  Enhance your life.  Simply be.

 

 

….and LOVE RAGES ON

 

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Circle of Breath

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Walking on a country road in Oregon in June is a breath taking experience….well perhaps it is more of a breath giving experience for the lusciousness of nature is stunning!  This day my walk was to disconnect from a computer screen and to extend my entire being into the nature that grounds me and often provides very wise counsel.

Most always I am inspired to write by and within the presence of nature, and this day was no different.  As I walked I happened to glance upwards and there was a rather large bird with wings outspread catching the wind so that almost no effort was asked to simply be a graceful, effortless presence in the air.  As I kept walking I noticed that the bird stayed with me circling over and over….and then when I stopped to have direct contact the bird came directly overhead and did a very tight circle over my head.

Then it came.  The title to this blog post was to be Circle of Breath.  Once I had gotten that and was pleased with myself for picking up the message from above….the bird disappeared – literally.    Well that was clear!

Nature is often like this and holds daily messages and reminders for us if we will only stop our endless, and sometimes frantic, daily business – and just simply breathe.  The breath truly is a bridge that connects and unites our body to our thoughts, and if smooth, natural, and easy, there will be no disconnects.

Circular breathing has been used for many thousands of years as a vehicle to access higher states of consciousness as in meditation, for downloading stress and imbalances, releasing old patterns from the body/mind, and certainly for musicians playing wind instruments (which is a very special technique).

It is also a natural rhythm for our being – inhale connected to exhale with a couple of pauses thrown in for good measure.  We come into this world and the circle begins at our first breath, and it is not broken until our last breath out.

The circle represents all encompassing cosmic unity.  Everywhere you look will be found this symbol from the stars and planets to the shape of our eyes.  In many cultures the circle is a sacred symbol and has many meanings, among them wholeness, unity, inclusion, union and focus.

As our breath circles within our body life is sustained and we come into union with every other life form.  For your breathing pleasure please go to the The Earth Breathing video below (which I have presented in a past post)…..and just be still in nature at least once daily this week to simply be present to what is being revealed, and to breathe with the Earth.

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Essensual Breath

“There are moments of insight when ancient truths do stand out more vividly,  
and one senses anew his relationship to the earth and to all life.  
Such moments are worth waiting for, and when they come  
in some unheralded instant of knowing,  
they are of the purest gold.”

Sigurd Olson

The ocean was never more than 5 blocks away growing up and in my first years was just over a short wall to the beach with

Mission Beach, San Diego, California

waves beckoning to a young child to come and play.  Given this you will understand why today I was so strongly drawn to the ocean that nothing could keep me away.

A 50 minute drive had me in direct proximity with the smell of salt air, the sound of waves rolling, and gulls sounding off in the air.  Even though the sun was hidden there were many children, adults, and dogs celebrating the gifts of being near to the sea (and in it!).

When our senses are evoked by nature, feelings of love, a burst of creativity, tantalizing smells, pleasing sounds, luscious tastes, or the tender touch of a hand – our breath responds.

When I left my home my breath was shallow and constricted.  After arriving at the beach and walking along the shore with lower legs caressed by salt water my breath became full and expanded.

What is it that connects our senses with the breath?  Perhaps it is the “essensual” connection with that which we are created from – our home inside on the deepest cellular level.  When our senses are filled – our breath is full.

Spending countless hours sitting in front of computers/electronics, watching television for some, and hooked into sedentary lifestyles and mind games we have forgotten that we even have a full array of senses that can give us unending pleasure, ignite our life dreams, and connect us to the whole of all that is around and within us.

What would it be like if today you took a “senses break”.  In other words choose one of your senses –   nose/smell; eyes/visual; ears/hearing; skin/touch – kinesthetic; or tongue/taste.  I invite you to take a 15 minute “sense break” and completely focus in with that particular sense.

What is your experience?  Has your breath changed as you allow your one sense to be the connector moment to moment?  Now see if you can focus into the moment with all 5 senses and notice how the breath may change.

All life that came before us depended upon senses to navigate their particular place in the world.  Their survival actually depended upon it.  How might we bring back a deeper connection with our senses…and thus with our breath? As this connection deepens, and in some cases returns, our direct experience of life in the moment expands.

In return, our full embodied breath can also ignite our senses.  Just taking one full breath activates the nasal passages/smell as we bring more air into and out of our body; increases visual depth and acuity as oxygen stimulates our visual receptors; creates a soft sound that tells us “we are alive and breathing”; expands our chest, ribcage, back and belly, massages organs and the lymphatic/circulatory systems, and causes increased sensitivity to touch as the breath moves in and out; and stimulates appetite to “taste” more of life as we increase our aliveness with a full breath.

What is holding you back from using your senses more to feel, hear, taste, touch and see?  Don’t miss huge parts of your life!  As Jon Kabat-Zin, Ph.D says in the video below: “Pay attention in an open-hearted way to the full range of your capacities and resources.”  

Breathe it in!!

Sense Mindfulness with Thich Nhat Hanh (a favorite person and teacher!) – Stop running and pay attention to the now with all of  your senses…..

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