Between the head and feet of any given person is a billion miles of unexplored wilderness. ~Gabrielle Roth
Both Dennis Lewis and Gabrielle Roth speak of spaciousness to explore in the quotes above. Using the breath as a vehicle for exploring this spaciousness is a practice that is well worth your time and attention. Have you ever spent a day, or even a moment, exploring the spaciousness that is opened up within the presence of your breath?
Let’s take this and ground it right now. We can talk esoterically or spiritually….but what is it really like to do something no one – including yourself – ever imagined that you could achieve. That would take a full embrace of everything you are – this spacious Presence Dennis Lewis speaks of and the “wilderness” that Gabrielle Roth suggests.
Purpose and capability is part of this exploration. Wander through the video below about Kyle Maynard. His journey speaks to the pure spacious presence that can be found when you say yes to, and embrace, the full present life that you have been given. No room for anything less than this after seeing what Kyle has embraced!
When we really pay attention to our breath a spaciousness arises that has a quality of art in movement. Have you ever thought of your breath as an art piece? As a representation of a timeless geometric code?
The exquisite Thomas Rucker photo above captured my attention in a very breath and body oriented way. It represented to me the Golden Ratio Spiral which is the mathematical expression of the life breath of a living universe. Golden Ratio Spiral spins the breath up, around and through the spine as well as spiraling back and forth through right and left nostrils. This is all a microcosm of the galaxy we spiral within.
The air we breathe, and all life forms as we know them emerge out of timeless geometric codes. The very nature of our breath is a sacred representation of all life on Earth….and the entire Universe. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a tiny particle traveling on the back of the breath? The inner worlds you glimpse might take you shooting off in directions unknown and drop you down into the knowing of a moment nestled in the silence of a pause.
We are an integral interconnected part of the spiral of life.
Allow breath to emerge as an artistic expression of the universe
Wrapping you in carefully selected layers of receptive earth, air and stone.
At the recent Breathwork Summit put on by The Shift Network I was extremely privileged to hear many gifted and wise breath “experts” share their particular expertise and stories. It was actually a delight!
Among those who spoke were Deborah Rozman and Rollin McCraty of HeartMath. Since it is only days before Valentines Day I thought it appropriate to share some of their findings and practices here on BreathingSpaces.
The bottom line is that the heart rhythm is affected by our breath. The heart then sends neural information to our brain on how to react based on how we are breathing. The more shallow and faster the breath the more emotional response. As we continue in the “fight or flight” or sympathetic nervous system response pattern the hearts more chaotic rhythm will send more input to the brain that then keeps our breathing stuck in the quick and shallow pattern. As you can see this could be a vicious cycle!
If our heart rhythm is out of sync, as happens when our breathing rate is faster and more shallow when we are under stress of any kind, then we are out of what HeartMath calls “co-herence”. This heart rhythm of co-herence is one that is natural and in balanced alignment with all systems of our body, mind and emotions. It turns on the parasympathetic system – our natural restful state.
Here is a Heart Focused Breathing practice that you can use in times when stress hits and you feel your breath rhythm change:
1) Focus your attention in the heart. (you can place a hand there as well)
2) Pretend the breath is going in and out of the heart. Count to 5 with each inhale and 5 with each exhale. (A rhythm of co-herence)
3) While you are doing this breath rhythm, focusing on breathing in and out of the heart, bring a positive feeling like gratitude, appreciation, and compassion – or imagine a beautiful scene out in nature that makes you feel good.
In a short period of time you will come back into a heart rhythm of co-herence through focusing your breathing towards the heart. All systems will come back into alignment. This only takes minutes and can be very effective. (HeartMath also has a biofeedback device called EmWave that can actually show you when you come back into a smooth and life enhancing rhythm)
On this Valentine’s Day share a heart-focused breath with someone you love!
Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be fair in thy judgement, and guarded in thy speech. Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness, and a home to the stranger. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be a breath of life to the body of humankind, a dew to the soil of the human heart, and a fruit upon the tree of humility.
The shape of our life depends on how willing we are to create a masterpiece. As my life unfolds itself I sometimes wonder what shape it will take next….forgetting that it is in my hands as I take a breath, release it completely, and trust that I will be guided within the spaciousness that shows up with the next exhale.
Do you forget that the person standing next to you in the interminably long line is affected by the quality of your breath? In fact the person sitting at the edge of the Ganges mourning the loss of a loved one is also affected by your breath, as is the whale that breaches out of the depths of the ocean. The question is, will you be a catalyst for love and peace….or yet another addition to the anxiety and fear that strangles and contracts the life that we all have been given?
The choice is to be a breath of life, even amidst our own fears and longings. Your life and those dear to you, as well as the entire planet, need your breath of life. Since we all share the air would it not be a good practice to relax into the next exhale with all of the love you can possibly embody in one brief moment of time? There is the peace….
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BOOK LAUNCH on 2/26/12! Watch for the availability of Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath this month. Available in download, spiral bound, and e-book forms on this blog site as well as ResonanceWithLife! See a sample on theOur Daily Breath tab above.
“Love is the felt experience of connection to another being. An economist says ‘more for you is less for me.’ But the lover knows that more of you is more for me too. If you love somebody their happiness is your happiness. Their pain is your pain. Your sense of self expands to include other beings. This shift of consciousness is universal in everybody, 99% and 1%.” ~ Charles Eisenstein
Today I had the powerful experience of viewing a taste of the upcoming feature documentary, Occupy Love. It reminded me once again of the powerful shift in consciousness that is happening globally right now, and I do believe that the internet has a great deal to do with it. Many indigenous peoples have know for centuries of the deep interconnection that connects us all. They called it the web of life. Yet, little did they know that we would “artificially” create this “web” with our technology in the years to come.
Many of us experience this interconnectedness on a deeply felt level every single day of our lives. We are all empathic. You only have to go out into nature and observe for a little bit to see this fact in vivid display.
Our breath is just as interconnected as the internet, the bees in a hive, a pod of dolphins on the other side of the world, the atoms that make up the body you are inhabiting, or a group of people that have chosen to “Occupy Wall St”.
The only reason why you have enough air to breathe is that we have an unspoken agreement that all life will share it together. We are gifting it to each other – every human, plant, mountain, animal, insect, cell, river. Somewhere under all the strife, wars, economic greed, consumerism and self absorption there is a blueprint for conscious and heart felt giving. That blueprint is becoming clearly visible now and is harder and harder to disregard.
In our every inhale and exhale we are giving and receiving….an atmosphere teeming with life – our life. Since we are intimately and consciously sharing the air we breathe with every living thing, how can we feel separate? Occupy your breath fully so that the gifts you have to bring to the world are clearly coming from a fully embodied human in touch with the heart of matters.
“What we want to create is the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible. A sacred world. A world that works for everybody. A world that is healing. A world of peace. ” Occupy Wall St – The Revolution Is Love
“There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there’s another way; a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.” -Rumi
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com (Richard Cawte, Ph.D. most recent post is on “Making Connections”) www.WildlyFreeWoman.com (Check out the Daily Breath page for a video of me and a Sneak Preview of a new book coming out in January 2012!)
Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview and Reviews can be found here:
BREATHING SPACES 