Tag: breath awareness

Every Breath As A Prayer

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Often we feel that a prayer comes in the form of something spoken out loud or within, on our knees,  sitting in meditation, joining with others in a group,  read or written – in other words an action we must consciously take.  What if every breath we take is a simple prayer and a means to connect head with heart as proposed above?

What would you do with that practice?  Defining prayer as each breath taken expands the sacredness of what it is to be alive!

If each breath is a prayer then…

We are constantly in prayer

We have an unlimited opportunity to love

Our every breath is a deep connection to something greater than ourselves

Each breath is a prayer of gratitude for the life we have been given

No moment is less or more important than another

We are constantly praying with every other life form that breathes and vibrates

There is no separation between ourselves and the sacredness of life

There is nothing we have to DO to pray or any belief system needed

Prayer is life breathing itself

There is a beginning prayer and an ending prayer within this one life

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Website:  www.ResonanceWithLife.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://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Change Is Possibility


Gazing at the water drops on this leaf there is a sense of capturing an exquisite moment.  Yet our experience tells us that in the next moment this will change as everything is always in motion.  Riding the inevitable movement of change is what this life of ours is all about.  What do we do with change – resist it, or choose to see and be open to possibility.

This past week during a class I was teaching on the breath at our local University here in Austin, Texas there was a moment that asked for a different awareness.  Participants were paired up to practice opening breathing spaces with each other by simply laying hands on shoulders, backs and sides of body.  At the end of the exercise the giver was to give a gentle shoulder massage and simply be present in the moment.  Coming over to one pairing I saw and felt the possibility for a shift and believed that it was there to emerge.

Placing my hands lightly on the person’s mid-back and fingertips mid-chest I simply encouraged the breath to release.  In that moment the person who was receiving was filled with breath as if she was being breathed.  She became taller and expanded her breathing spaces to such an extent that it felt like a miracle to her.  The amazed expression on her face was enough to validate that within change there is always possibility for yet something else to evolve if we are open.

The person responsible for the photo above, Dewitt Jones, says that we “won’t see it until we believe it”.   That can be said for feeling it as well….a sixth sense if you will that something else is about to emerge that is even more extraordinary than what is presenting in the moment.  Do we have the patience and the trust to simply wait and be directed from a deeper place than our minds.  Do we have the wisdom to look at what is right with our lives, our relationships, our breath, our world.

It is always right there within the framework of change…   Please take time to watch this 22 minute video by Dewitt Jones on celebrating what is right with the world and staying open to change.  As we enter into the holiday season it may offer an entirely different perspective to live and be grateful from.

http://www.celebratewhatsright.com/film

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WEBSITE:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.WildlyFreeWoman.com
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here: 
http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Breath Technique or Practice Breath Awareness?

In January of this year, with full joy, I launched a book on the breath entitled, Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath: Weekly Breathing Spaces to Delight, Rest and Reflect In“.  It was a birth that had been in gestation for quite a long while…and the actual delivery left me filled with grace and a joyful satisfaction that I had courageously said YES to what I am passionate about without holding back.

For me, it was an action of awareness.  Awareness that I had something to share with the world that every single person could benefit from.  This action of awareness has taken me into the joys of writing and sharing with essentially abandon to the process of creation.  Mining the depths of something that continually fascinates and feeds me – the breath – and expanding that passion to other areas of interest is a “practice of awareness in the moment”.

Just today I received an e-mail from a dear friend which moved me to write this post.  Below is an excerpted part of what she wrote to me and a portion of my response.

“I don’t know if I told you but I carried your book in my bag for a long time.  I would read it at work or in the evenings when I was home and had more time to savor the delightful passages.  My issue is that I get started on a breathing/meditation program but the enthusiasm only lasts for a couple of weeks or months;  then I taper off and before long I have stopped my practice. “ R.B.

“I have a bias R.  To me any “breathing exercise” or “technique” is really only beneficial if it creates a state of being consciously aware of a full embodied breath from moment to moment.  There are many breath techniques that can be immensely beneficial, however are they sustainable and do they shift our awareness to be present in our daily moments of living?

I have learned to simply take 5 minute (or less) “breath breaks” scattered throughout the day to check in. Scanning the body brings awareness to any tension in the body, holding of the breath, or shallow breathing….. without judgement.  Taking a few fully engaged breaths expanding and releasing all of the primary breathing muscles – diaphragm, intercostal (between the ribs) and abdominal, reminds me of being present NOW no matter what is happening,  and allows me to feel alive not just in my mind! The body loves this attention!!

This breath practice of awareness has now become a “habit” in my tool bag that I carry with me everywhere.  I say, if the breath allows us to be more present in the moment to what is happening, and deepens our participation and awareness in that moment, then it has done it’s job (more than merely keeping us alive that is..:-) What a great tool to enliven our life moments!” G. A.

FOR BREATH IS LIFE, AND IF YOU BREATHE WELL YOU WILL LIVE LONG ON EARTH  –  Sanskrit Proverb

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews, and links to purchase can be found here:
http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Website:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

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