Let’s pretend for a moment that our beloved is named “Breath”. How would our present relationship with our breathing change?
If breath became shallow and contracted we might take some moments to notice and then soften shoulders, neck, facial muscles and belly/pelvis so that Breath could expand, relax and feel our love.
In those times when Breath leaves us all together for moments at a time, we might decide to invite Breath out for a walk, run, or a dance around the room embracing every inhale and exhale making certain that Breath feels they are the most important part of our life.
When Breath becomes all out of sorts coming and going in short bursts and irregular rhythms, we might offer a gentle touch or massage, or share laughter to soothe the “savage beast”, opening Breath back again to the natural innate rhythm that Breath prefers to live within…..and where your relationship thrives.
It may be a challenge to have Breath as a lover since you cannot see Breath, nor touch Breath, but as Helen Keller said – “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.”
Without Breath we would not be here to cherish others. Without other beings we would not learn all the ways to cherish ourselves.
(Excerpted from “Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath” by Gaye Abbott. Link below)
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!
“I walk lighter, stumble less, with more spring in leg and lung, keeping my center of gravity deep in the belly, and letting that center ‘see.’ At these times, I am free of vertigo, even in dangerous places; my feet move naturally to firm footholds, and I flow. But sometimes for a day or more, I lose this feel of things, my breath is high up in my chest, and then I cling to the cliff edge as to life itself. And of course it is this clinging, the tightness of panic, that gets people killed: ‘to clutch,’ in ancient Egyptian, ‘to clutch the mountain,’ in Assyrian, were euphemisms that signified ‘to die'” (125).”–Peter Matthiessen, “The Snow Leopard”
It has been many years since I read Peter Matthiessen’s “The Snow Leopard”, but I still remember being mesmerized by the journey and often felt as if I was right there taking each step – both inner and outer.
Though I have not been to the Himalayas the quote above reminds me of when clinging or gripping would indeed have gotten me killed in the physical sense and closed off from possibility in a “soul’s journey” sense. This was many, many years ago on the Hawaiian island of Kauai while hiking along the original Kalalau trail of the Na Pali coast.
Kalalau cliffside trial, Na Pali coast
There are many areas along this 11 mile trial, with end destination to a pristine beach, that are considered dangerous and can result in death or severe injury. Having read about one particular part of this trial before I even left on the trip the pattern for “gripping” or contraction in breath and body was already bound up in the fears of falling over the cliff side into the ocean below, or not being able to make it past this particular part of the trail (it was about two thirds of the way in) and being the only one of the party of 4 that couldn’t go on.
This part of the journey was about the flow that Peter Matthiessen speaks of in the quote above. Allowing each breath to be a signpost for the next step and the next and the next. The trial was literally along the cliff side just as in the picture to the right. There were no handholds, a wind was blowing, and past the people you see on the trial there was a 90 degree turn that had to be negotiated with a heavy back pack on – again no barrier to falling.
As fate would have it we camped right before this part of the trial the night before we were to go on this leg of the journey. Up to this time I had been the last one in a single file line as we hiked along absorbing the boundless beauty along the way. After a very restless night and some fearful tears I was the one that lead the way before the others were even ready to embark. Perhaps it was ancient Hawaiian guides who whispered in my ear to start early, breathe fully from the belly keeping my center of gravity there, ground down through my legs and feet, take one step at a time, and completely embody the journey.
As the breath stabilized and anchored my center of gravity there were moments when my whole world shifted to NOW, and NOW, and NOW demanding that I embrace the experience and the moment of absolute presence. There was a catharsis after that 90 degree turn when safer walking territory presented itself, yet the most powerful feeling of absolute freedom permeated every part of my being.
We don’t have to be on a cliff side with a shear drop off to understand that gripping the breath residing high in the chest means not only diminishing life force and well being, but cutting off – or killing – opportunities and possibilities for thriving within the challenges that life presents to us on a daily basis.
How would you like to be breathing? How would you like to be living? Place your hands on your belly and be grateful….
Gaye Abbott, RYT assists individuals to open energetic pathways for vibrant aliveness and full expression by removing the blocks that cover our natural innate blueprint, while addressing concerns through the opening of possibility. This is accomplished through a combination of Jin Shin Jyutsu, breath repatterning, yoga therapy and targeted guidance/mentoring revealing 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. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
This nature choreographed pas de deux may never be captured again. The glimmering light colors of a rainbow are always changing requesting our attention to beauty.
Do we perceive that in the moment, or instead gaze back at the rainbow minutes later only to find that it has shifted in color, intensity, or perhaps disappeared all together.
The tornado, just by it’s very presence evokes focused power, potential destruction of what is, and possibility for change as it travels across the sky and land. It demands attention by all in it’s path.
What happens when demand and request merge together? It may open a space of magic leaving the beholder in awe and wonder…..offering a space for possibility and powerful creativity.
Indulge me for a moment here. If the rainbow questioned whether it was beautiful enough or contained the right colors and intensity of light, hesitating before it made itself visible….
…or the tornado wondered if it could be powerful enough to move as intensely focused as it thought it should and hesitated….
…. the two would never have met and the moment of alchemical connection would have been lost. The original and unique creation of a “rainbow-tornado” might never have come to be.
What about our life….our individual life moments….our complete and absolute dedication to becoming all that we are meant to be this time around?
Do we hesitate, question and throw up excuses….or do we step up into our capacities as whole beings and connect with what enhances our expression and expands our service on behalf of life.
Take a very full conscious breath and consider this –
Someday you will die.
Take another conscious breath and consider –
Someday everyone that you are connected with and love will die.
Take one more full conscious breath and consider –
What will you do now with these ever changing precious moments of your life?
Gaye Abbott, RYT assists individuals to open energetic pathways for vibrant aliveness and full expression by removing the blocks that cover our natural innate blueprint, while addressing concerns through the opening of possibility. This is accomplished through a combination of Jin Shin Jyutsu, breath repatterning, yoga therapy and targeted guidance/mentoring revealing 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. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
Have you ever simply watched and felt a bird taking flight….being present to every nuance of wing, body, air, sound….those precious moments just before the launch? Swept with awe at this natural way to travel from one place to the next could be so filled with grace and strength.
Inhale remembering that this is natures way of receiving the best of what the body needs…..like a bird preparing for flight taking in everything that will sustain it during lift off…expanding soft belly, ribcage and back body ….resting in the pause to take it all in…..exhaling into pure fluid motion, lengthening as if the breath is soaring on a cushion of air that always promises to be there for the next inhale after the pregnant pause.
How much we take for granted with simply breathing from one moment to the next of our lives here. Taking the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh when he says, “smile, breathe and go slowly” into the fullness of any single moment and falling into the rapture of a full breath in flight – ease filled, fluid and resting in the biology of what gives life.
Take this moment now and be deeply grateful for your breath as the inhale slowly prepares for launch, pauses in the up sweep of expanded wings, soars on the exhale, and drops back to Earth during the grounded pause. Breathing meditation. Who wouldn’t smile…..?
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. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
I was being asked to “drop the body” and I felt rebellion brewing up under the surface. The well meaning yoga teacher was attempting to point out the many ways in which we contract our bodies in fear or barricade ourselves from the assumed trauma which we believe will invariably reach us in the next moment or two. In fact, this protection, shutting down, hiding and breath holding has taken up residence in so many of us without our conscious awareness.
The “rebellion” that I felt came from many years of being within meditative and spiritual communities that encouraged us to “drop our bodies” or “leave our bodies” in order to become “enlightened” or reach the state of Samadhi or pure consciousness apart from the mind (and body). Since I inhabit a creative woman’s body this time around and am extremely connected to the natural world this always made no sense to me.
Spending many years making myself “wrong” for feeling as I did I would return over and over to a practice that had no grounding – or if the truth be know “meaning” for me. It was easy for me to access those “higher states of spiritual consciousness” however my body was begging me to not leave it behind and to inhabit the “soul” of my being which can be a little messy and definitely divinely feminine!
Take a good long look at Alex Gray’s famous image above and note that this being is not only completely present in body, but also interconnected with the earth and all elements. We also see this in the image of Buddha below and within the quote from an influential and famous ascetic-philosopher of the 20th century Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (1906-1993) who was known as an innovative re-interpreter of Buddhist doctrine and Thai folk beliefs. Buddha’s right hand touching the earth informs us that without using any words, the Buddha calls on the Earth to bear witness. This “earth mudra” is a beautiful example of the integration of “embodied cognition” and a respect for and celebration of the divine feminine, creative embodied presence.
“The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon, and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees, and the Earth. When we realize that the world is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise — then we can build a noble environment. If our lives are not based on this truth, then we shall perish.” –Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
The times we live in are requesting – no demanding – that we embody and perhaps redefine the concept of samadhi – to acquire integration, or wholeness, or truth within the awareness of deep interconnection or “being” with all that is. This means staying in the body and integrating it as an amazing vehicle from which we can serve others and bring our own wisdom, talents, creativity and gifts. This means remembering that we are the earth and all elements so deeply interconnected that it would blow our minds if we could really see and feel it!
“All is one” – a non-dualistic frame of reference for relationship and cooperation. This means taking action from a fully integrated body inhabiting the miracle of breath that moves in and out from a universal source that gives life to everything and everyone in the cosmos. Ubuntu – essential interdependence. The Divine Feminine in partnership with the Divine Masculine.
Everything is energy. The blueprint that we came in with at birth is fully integrated at this deep level of Source – deeply relaxed, open and available with access to an unlimited source of energy. After years of living in this body we have somehow managed to cover up this innate blueprint with layers and layers of protection, assumptions, beliefs, past traumas, and hiding.
This is not a “bad thing” – it simply is a state of being for survival that we have accepted and perpetuate in our day to day life moments. This is what my yoga teacher meant by “dropping the body” – simply being aware of and then letting go of anything that is in the way of living from your natural state of being.
Fully inhabiting the breath and clearing away patterns that block this way of being is essential for living life in the deepest and most creative expression that we came in with – resonance with life. Neglecting the “brain” of the intellect, the heart, the gut, our animalistic rhythms and even the minutest of cells within our body will only bring us to separation from ourselves, others, the natural world and the entire cosmos.
True belonging is embodied, collaborative and cooperative. We are evolving into Universal Humanity. Take your place….
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. Please inquire. Skype: gaye.abbott
Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:
BREATHING SPACES 