Category: Creative Breathing

Soul Musings/Day 19: The Breathing Space of Stability

Franchise-Stability

Much to our dismay we recognize in our aware moments that there is no stability in life.

The “certainty” that we would like to hang on to simply does not exist.

Even our breathing is supported by many factors such as changes in our activities/or lack of, our overall health at any given moment, the aging process and stimulus from many domains.

Pinning anything down is virtually impossible in this constantly creating, energetically evolving Universe.

 We can institute some stability by taking effective action in our lives like supporting an unstable knee with strengthening exercises, the correct shoes,and body movement awareness which supports stability – however like the stones above one small shift will cause them to come cascading down into yet another formation.

The key is that there is constant shift as we live life as it really is from our biology, and when that shift occurs it is simply evolution into another expression that is being called for versus bad/good or right/wrong.

A dance for certain and one which leaves us as the curious, resilient, and at times startled and confused Choreographer.

With Source as Director.

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NATURAL PASSAGES CONSULTINGphoto58

Inspiring New Possibilities, Living From the Soul of Life While Co-creating Well Being of Body, Being, Heart and Planet….One Breath At A Time

Soul Musings is a 31-day practice for the month of December immersed in deep listening to what is emerging and unfolding day by day.  Eight sentences with occasional resources to explore more deeply.

Each post, invited by Soul, allows the words to emerge unscathed from prior planning, editing, or censorship.  Dwelling in uncertainty and dipping a toe into mystery this union of words is an attempt to resonate within an innate way of Being…. returning “home”.

To receive daily posts simply sign up for this blog and you will be notified through e-mail.  In addition there will be daily posts on the blogs below.  Thank you for being part of this practice with me!

Gaye Abbott – http://www.GayeAbbott.com

OTHER BLOGS:

WildlyFreeWoman

NaturalWealthJournal

Breath-Book-coverW2(3)Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:

http://gayeabbott.com/books/

Soul Musings/Day 17: Soulful Breath Dance

ailey-articleLarge
Alvin Ailey Dancers

“I wish to live a life that causes my Soul to dance inside my body.” Dele Olanubi

Excavating hidden places that are yearning to show their faces

Inhaling touches them with luminosity

Cells vibrate with Light

Causing the hidden language of the Soul to come alive

Cascading through every fiber of the body

As ownership of the exhale surrenders itself to uncertainty

Vibrating with movement

Capturing, then releasing, the passion that fills one single Being

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NATURAL PASSAGES CONSULTINGphoto58

Inspiring New Possibilities, Living From the Soul of Life While Co-creating Well Being of Body, Being, Heart and Planet….One Breath At A Time

Soul Musings is a 31-day practice for the month of December immersed in deep listening to what is emerging and unfolding day by day.  Eight sentences with occasional resources to explore more deeply.

Each post, invited by Soul, allows the words to emerge unscathed from prior planning, editing, or censorship.  Dwelling in uncertainty and dipping a toe into mystery this union of words is an attempt to resonate within an innate way of Being…. returning “home”.

To receive daily posts simply sign up for this blog and you will be notified through e-mail.  In addition there will be daily posts on the blogs below.  Thank you for being part of this practice with me!

Gaye Abbott – http://www.GayeAbbott.com

OTHER BLOGS:

WildlyFreeWoman

NaturalWealthJournal

Breath-Book-coverW2(3)Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:

http://gayeabbott.com/books/

Soul Musings/Day 10: Embracing Mistakes

Life is filled with them – mistakes that is. How else could we learn, grow and expand the creative breathing space and learn who we are if not for them.

This video by Victor Wooten makes some great distinctions for musicians. They can also be applied to many other aspects of our lives.

Embracing our mistakes opens the doorway for learning and full on creativity to emerge from other spaces we might not have explored otherwise.

Placing ourselves in the company of others that have gained competency, mastery or artistry challenges and inspires us to reach more deeply inside and discover the unique style/language yearning to be expressed….or simply the yearning.

Challenging ourselves to step up, step out, and “play” more opens what might be a narrow container into a full on playing field where we fall into the possibility of finding out what we are really made of.

And last but not least, bringing that full, juicy, sometimes quiet and still, poetic Soulful expression from the deepest recesses, and most expanded and convoluted spaces of our Being is damn interesting!

(This post dedicated to Brian Alger, friend and fellow writer on the path….)

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NATURAL PASSAGES CONSULTINGphoto58

Inspiring New Possibilities, Living From the Soul of Life While Co-creating Well Being of Body, Being, Heart and Planet….One Breath At A Time

Soul Musings is a 31-day practice for the month of December immersed in deep listening to what is emerging and unfolding day by day.  Eight sentences with occasional resources to explore more deeply.

Each post, invited by Soul, allows the words to emerge unscathed from prior planning, editing, or censorship.  Dwelling in uncertainty and dipping a toe into mystery this union of words is an attempt to resonate within an innate way of Being…. returning “home”.

To receive daily posts simply sign up for this blog and you will be notified through e-mail.  In addition there will be daily posts on the blogs below.  Thank you for being part of this practice with me!

Gaye Abbott – http://www.GayeAbbott.com

OTHER BLOGS:

WildlyFreeWoman

NaturalWealthJournal

Breath-Book-coverW2(3)Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:

http://gayeabbott.com/books/

Many Paths to Stillness of the Breath

“When the breath is irregular, the mind is also unsteady; but when the breath is still, so is the mind.” ~ Pradipika

I start with this quote as I am going to venture a bit away from it…well maybe way off from it.  But not really, because after practicing the primate Hu Breath I do believe that there will be so much opening in your body, that the return to stillness will be automatic -and deeper – and all irregularities will simply vanish!  There are many paths to reach a destination I say…

However, you may find yourself laughing with abandon before you finish this little practice.  Caryn McHose and Kevin Frank have written a delightful book called, How Life Moves, Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness.  The book literally fell off my shelf today as I was sorting through books I want to keep in my move to Austin, and those that I will be gifting away.  Let’s just say that I will be keeping this one!

Directions follow which come straight from the book. This practice is the invention of Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum.

“To do the Hu Breath, start by sitting comfortably on the floor, on a chair, or atop a physioball.  Breathe through your mouth.  On each exhale make a “ha” or “hee” or “hu” sound.  Breathe continuously in and out, moderately quickly, creating a visible pumping of the belly and letting the mouth experiment with different Simian expressions.  (that means monkey movements and sounds my friends!)  Allow the rhythm of the breath to pulse the body.  Play with the movement using an imagined sense of monkey and jungle persona to inspire the shapes of the movement.”

Personally I suggest that if you have a physioball, use it (bouncing is absolutely delicious!), as it creates another element to freeing your body and breath into movement freedom and instant laughter!  Breathing Spaces are only limited if you inhibit them….so I say go for it today and try on something completely different.  (even though I suspect that for some of you this will be just normal everyday behavior!)  Enjoy and let me know how you feel!!

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.WildlyFreeWoman.com

www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

Breath of Joy!

What if the breath was a pathway to choose joy?  There is a very old Chinese saying that says, “One who half breathes, half lives.”   When you are feeling fatigue, lethargy, slight depression, or inability to focus have you ever just done a Breath Check?  You may find that your breathing has some restrictions. The good news is that you can chose to change that in any moment!

Shallow, upper chest, or restricted breathing represents so many things.  It is a pattern in alignment with restriction, limitation, and shutting down on life – YOUR LIFE!

Have you ever held your nose and tried to taste something?  Or maybe you did that when you were young and your parents wanted you to eat something that you didn’t want to eat…so you held your nose and ate it….because you couldn’t taste it right?!

Shutting down on the breath shuts down more than just the breath.  It obviously impacts your health and aliveness, but it also shuts down your joy and pleasure of living,  being in the moment, your creativity, and your ability to “taste life”.

Here is a simple video that gives you a tool to shift what I call “low life breathing” into “breathing in creative joy”.  Use it often!

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE:  www.WildlyFreeWoman.com