TREE BREATHING

 

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“Remember you are a breathing being, alive right now and here. Let yourself feel the mystery and the miracle of your breath and your life as often as you can.” 

Dennis Lewis from The Ten Secrets of Authentic Breathing

Trees are the lungs of the Earth.  They call to us this time of year with their vibrant colors and falling leaves. Trees in their vast diversity are often taken for granted until Fall or Spring arrives. Then our attention is riveted on either blazing color or verdant green.

Many cultures revere trees as living breathing sacred life that provide purification, bathing us with life giving oxygen and cleansing waters when our environment is in balance.  They are also used for prayers and ceremonies and often are a central focus for communities.

I remember as a young mother reading the book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, to my young sons.  I loved the relationship between the boy and the tree as each went through the stages of their lives.

As we enter the holidays where trees take a central focus for ritual and celebration, perhaps there is another relationship we can nurture that will remind us of the deep and abiding interrelationship that we have with trees, as well as give us moments of peace and a great reminder to breathe fully.

Here is a practice by Llyn Roberts given in the book Speaking With Nature: Awakening to the Deep Wisdom of the Earth, that I invite you to practice as the trees around us change and shift with the season:

“Find a tree you admire on your land, in your backyard, or at a nearby park.  Stand on the earth next to this tree, barefoot if possible.  Gaze at the tree and sniff the air.  Try to sense the misty, nutrient-dense waters that evaporate from this tree being.  Although you may not see moisture, you can imagine its release. 

Breathe in the rich vapors that flow from the tree like a fountain.

Then breathe out sustaining energy to the tree.

As you continue to “tree-breathe”, attune to this tree’s essence.  Feel its spirit for everything it offers.  Importantly, feel your gratitude.  Just as its invisible waters and oxygen nourish you, the love you release with each exhale is food for the tree; appreciation is a nourishing force.

This is a good time to commit to do what you can to promote healthy trees and air, with the tree as your witness.”

As we relate with the trees around us and in our communities we can be with them as a reminder to breathe fully taking time to simply be present to the moment we are inhabiting.

On the inhale silently say to yourself “ALIVE” and on the exhale, “NOW”.  Then rest in the pause before the inhale naturally comes back in again.

This exact moment is a gift of awareness.

TREE BREATHING….

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NATURAL PASSAGES CONSULTING

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

http://www.GayeAbbott.com

Gaye Abbott, RYT assists individuals to dissolve the layers that block well being and reveal, through a combination of the energy medicine of Jin Shin Jyutsu, yoga therapy and breath re-patterning, and as spiritual mentor/guide/coach, the larger purpose and co-creative expression that we are here for.

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 as is Skype mentoring/coaching.  Please inquire. 

Coaching and Editing for Transformative and Visionary Writers

I help you reveal new possibilities in your creative work

Language is fundamental to who we are as biological beings and is the primary vehicle for taking effective action in our lives. It inherently carries within it our identity in the world and the potential for connection and collaboration.

As an advanced practitioner of Jin Shin Jyutsu I am able to see and work with the connection between the body’s energy system and that of language. Conversations actually live in our bodies. Words hold energy that stimulate our biology in various ways.

Transformative writing opens spaces, triggers possibility and stimulates your reader to take effective action. This is Language as Energy Medicine

Inquire:  JoyfulGaye@NaturalPassages.com

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:
www.WildlyFreeWoman.com

Breath-Book-coverW2(1)Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:

http://gayeabbott.com/books/

The Wild Breath

Facts-about-Texas-F5-TornadoI happen to have lived in Austin, Texas for the past 4 years and, as many know, we experienced some wild and wooly weather last week. Once I wrapped my mind around the fact that Central Texas rain is not at all like California or Oregon rain – both places I have lived for longer periods of time – I adjusted to the fact that sudden, and I mean sudden, flash flooding was part of the landscape around these parts.

What no one told me was that tornadoes could also be part of nature’s wildness here, mostly because they almost never touch down in Austin. Though I wasn’t in town for last weeks tornado touch down, I saw the aftermath. This event took me into reflection around the wildness and unpredictable quality of the natural world – something that the human race has attempted to tame, domesticate and destroy since the beginning of the industrial age.

By those very actions, in attempting to create illusive and nonexistent “security”, dire consequences to the planet we live upon are very much a regular occurrence these days.  Those consequences also reside within us.

We are finally beginning to realize that in this attempt to control – which we can never do anyway – nature would teach us deep soul lessons.  Lessons that would illuminate the unconscious actions we have taken to separate ourselves from not only that which we are made from, but from the substance our very life depends on. Our own “wild souls” if you will, each and every cell of our being intimately connected with and from the natural world.

Just think about it. Even the very act of breathing, such a simple and profound life giving action, has also been captured into a tight container of separation from the wholeness of who we are.

The shallow and contracted breath – fed by scarcity, fear or anxiety – that so many of us have on board, represents to me this loss of the wild, untamed, and natural breath that is our innate and direct link to aliveness. 

As we stare into the face of a smart phone or computer, we have lost the essential pleasure and connection that is made while in the presence of and gazing in awe at the wonder of a tree, sitting in the pristine silence of the desert, swimming with a dolphin in breath union, taking steps upon the rocks that make up the mountain, or feeling the expanse of a prairie – all reminding us of how vast and precious is life and who we are within it.

The resiliency of simply allowing the natural unfolding of life through the act of breathing connects us to that which sustains and nurtures our well being.

Perhaps if each of us paid attention to reconnecting to the wild, flowing, fully embodied breath we have been given, it would become an integral and vitally important part of the necessary foundation for cultivating and returning to our own innate wildness.

Taking time to explore the landscape of breath, the terrain that it travels, and the vitality that ebbs and flows from its very nature is an exercise in returning “home” to the wild soul of our being.

RECOMMENDED READING:

index  Gaye’s Review:

Delving into the wildness of this poetic prose of a book brought me “home”. Home to the elements that make up the “wild being” of who and what I am. The elements of Earth’s scared natural world, calling out to us so powerfully at this time in our planet’s history to come back “home” to the inner landscapes of our wild souls – reconnecting and communing in ways that shift the delicate balance back from the ego’s domestication, taming and destructive actions – into a natural state of cohabiting harmony in intimate and deep listening relationship with the Earth.

I could not stop reading this exquisitely powerful book, and am now on my second read through, stopping to ponder and inhabit the landscapes and the words that flow through me onto the journal page. At times I was reminded of John O’Donohue’s writing that draws us in to a much larger context from a place of simply Being. It is not just a “healing” that needs to happen here, but a complete return to absolute devotion to the wild landscapes and elements that bring us life with every breath we take. Mary Reynolds Thompson has brilliantly succeeded in opening that space for us to explore within and without, guiding us to take effective and conscious action from the wildness of all life – from the depths of our souls. – Gaye Abbott, author of Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath, Weekly Breathing Spaces to Delight, Rest and Reflect In.

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NATURAL PASSAGES CONSULTING

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

http://www.GayeAbbott.com

Gaye Abbott, RYT assists individuals to dissolve the layers that block well being and reveal, through a combination of the energy medicine of Jin Shin Jyutsu, yoga therapy and breath re-patterning, and as spiritual mentor/guide/coach, the larger purpose and co-creative expression that we are here for.

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 as is Skype mentoring/coaching.  Please inquire. 

NEW OFFERING AS OF 3/20/15!!

Coaching and Editing for Transformative and Visionary Writers

I help you reveal new possibilities in your creative work

Language is fundamental to who we are as biological beings and is the primary vehicle for taking effective action in our lives. It inherently carries within it our identity in the world and the potential for connection and collaboration.

As an advanced practitioner of Jin Shin Jyutsu I am able to see and work with the connection between the body’s energy system and that of language. Conversations actually live in our bodies. Words hold energy that stimulate our biology in various ways.

Transformative writing opens spaces, triggers possibility and stimulates your reader to take effective action. This is Language as Energy Medicine

Inquire:  JoyfulGaye@NaturalPassages.com

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:
www.WildlyFreeWoman.com
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

Breath-Book-coverW2(1)Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:

http://gayeabbott.com/books/

Soul Musings/Day 26: Living With Passionate Awareness

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A shallow contracted breath is like running away from your own life experience.

We have to breathe.

Choosing to do so with passionate awareness brings opportunities and risks.

Falling into life moments with the abandon of a child.

How many moments of our lives are we willing to passionately breathe into.

Amelia Earhart once said, “Who wants to live a life imprisoned in safety?”

Timing is everything and nothing, yet if we decide to hold back the moment is lost.

Declare to explore the passion embodied within a full breath,  awaiting as a lover with open arms.

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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 Abbotthttp://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 25: The Other Side of Giving

GiveandReceive

Many of us are raised in the belief that to give is more important than to receive. It took me the longest time to realize that like the inhale and exhale one was not better than the other.

In fact without being able to fully receive there would be no place for giving at all. An inhale must be partnered with an exhale for life to continue.

Just the other day I was given a gift of money that was unexpected. Though it took me by surprise I was able to open my heart and receive this gift with deep gratitude.

The person that gave this gift to me was able to tell me that she had gone through a inner process before deciding to gift me with the money and that very process opened up a space of possibility within her that was not there prior to the giving.

Receiving, a gift we offer to the one who is giving.

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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 Abbotthttp://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 3: Laughter for the Soul

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Laughter, a universal vocabulary without words.

A connector in mirth or an attempt to belong.

Stimulator of feel good endorphins or scornful disdain.

A veritable landscape of sounds capturing humanity in free for all expression.

Belly laugh or quiet giggle.

Breaker of tension.

All out uninhibited, wet your pants, tearing eyes, can’t stop, good for your soul breathing.

Do it….today.

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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

NaturaWealthJournal

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

http://gayeabbott.com/books/