breath meditation – Page 3 – BREATHING SPACES

Sweet Chestnuts of Roslin – Breathe With The Ancient Ones

BREATHE WITH THE ANCIENT ONES:

When you are next out in the woods you may come across some ancient ones. You know who they are for it almost feels as if they are telling you the secrets of the ages. As you breathe in the air around them images come to mind of lives long past and creatures still present – circling round, sniffing your presence as if to determine just what kind of being you are.

It is the ancient ones that remind us of who we are in our fullest expression. That ask us to lay down our fears and breathe life into the creative impulse that quickens in us as it has in them for hundreds of years.

Our aging faces and bodies look gladly upon these ancients before us for we recognize the lines, crevices, textures, twists and turns of life well lived – a breathing, pulsing and at times mysterious Source of life that speaks to the expanse of creative potential and interconnection.

Next time you are in the woods remember to share a Breathing Space with the ancients, for they will hold you captive with their tales…… while giving and receiving the breath of life….

Thank you to Breath of Green Air for this magical and beautiful post! Gaye

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breathofgreenair

Deep in the old woods of Roslin Valley there live two very ancient tree ents. In the green shaded light of the summer woods you can make out their limbs and faces, which have grown here for over 400 years. In fact they have stood here for so long that time has gathered in a shadowy mist around its branches, pausing time and place. A deep velvet hush hangs over the hollow and everything present holds its breath afraid to wake the dozing giants, descendants of Roman immigrants 2,000 years ago.

If you venture close enough, you can look up into the branches where antlered wooden deer run free through the field of leaves. With their horned heads held high they keep watch over the paths leading to the old tree creatures body. Among the moonlight these deer hide from Odins Wild Hunt, as they have since time began. All…

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Non-Separation and the Breath

A few years ago a story of the consciousness of interconnection unfolded right before my eyes. This happened from a place of non-separation, or in other words a real sense of oneness between people and nature. It is a simple story really – one of three men and a tree.

Two of the men were leaders within their Balinese community. One man had cut down a tree without permission from his community village. You see in Bali one must obtain the permission of the entire village before cutting down a tree. The sense of interconnectedness with nature and among themselves pervades the Balinese culture.

These two leaders were discussing – with tears flowing down their faces – what kind of consequences the man who had cut down the tree must face. He had apparently done this before, most likely for carving art pieces to sell, so the discussion was a serious one. I never found out what they did decide, but I did get to sit with one of the leaders and share meditation and mutual discussion about cultures translated through his brother. I thanked him for this beautiful living example of deep awareness on how each interconnected being or life form intimately affects another.

How is it that we forget that we are not separate from anything or anyone when our breath tells us that we are constantly intimately connected. We share the very air we breathe with all living things. My dear friend and lifelong mentor, Richard Miller, Ph.D of iRest (grounded and concrete tools to come back home to a place of non-separation and well being) spoke eloquently on non-separation at the Summer of Peace through The Shift Network recently. He emphasized that the ultimate healing for all humans lies first in our sense of separation from ourselves and secondly the “other”, or the world outside of ourselves.

In a recent class I was privileged to facilitate – Decrease Anxiety, Indulge Inner Peace – I remember saying that I believe the core of anxiety comes from when we go away from or leave behind our deep purpose in life, which comes from our wholeness. This results in feeling a sense of separation. This very sense of separation activates anxiety.

Our strong innate imprinting to belong and to survive as we grow up into adults often times takes us away from the very sense of already belonging/deep interconnection that is a gift we are given at birth. This leave taking from our feeling of harmony with ourselves and life itself brings us to “war” within and without.

Deep abiding inner peace and equanimity brings us home to the state of non-separation, or as Richard says “non-dual” state of being. What better tool to resonate with than the breath to remind us over and over and over that we are an integral part of the whole and never separate. Inhale connected to exhale sharing with an abundant circle of life in the moment. When we resonate this peaceful place those around us will attune to the same state.

Be the change you wish to see in the world….come back home.

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Breathing Room

These three things that matter can most often be found within another three states: Silence, Stillness and Spaciousness. How our ego puts up a fight against even dipping one single toe into a space large enough to hold a full inhale and exhale in this very moment.

Try this simple exercise and see what happens – stand with feet planted on the floor about a hip distance apart, arms at your side with palms facing forward. Watch as a full breath starts from the belly, expands the ribcage and back, then cascades like a waterfall on the exhale pausing in the pool of breath at the bottom. Take several breaths this way.

Now close your eyes and lean forward as far as you can without tipping over. Watch what happens to the breath. Now come back to center and root down. Watch what happens to the breath and be aware of all the micro-movements and adjustments the body must make in order to simply stand upright.

For most of us this simple exercise reflects what happens constantly all day long. We lean into the future and our breath is literally held as our mind takes us to the next thing on the agenda. There is no breathing room.

I experienced that today in a conscious exercise in yoga class. As we moved very slowly from one pose to the next the mind wanted to revolt, to run, to judge, to do anything but be quiet to the burning muscle or the reflex thought about tomorrow. Instead we were instructed to place our mind on gentleness within the silence, stillness and spaciousness that grew as each breath passed.

To gracefully let go of the ego’s urging to move out of the pose, run to the bathroom, or chant the mantra – this is too hard! Watch the breath, love the body, let go gracefully of what is not meant for you. How much more do we suffer if we don’t give enough breathing room to expand the moment that we are in right now?

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Return To Deep Harmony

My recent offering of a class called Decrease Anxiety, Indulge Inner Peace has been an awakening on many levels. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States affecting 40 million adults age 18 and older. That equals 18.9% of the U.S. population and doesn’t even include those under 18.

Shallow constricted breathing is one aspect of the emotional posture of anxiety. Our entire system turns acidic with this type of breathing, our secondary breathing muscles in the neck, shoulders and upper chest become tight and contracted, and the stress response is activated over and over again.

Did you know that the average person reaches peak respiratory function and lung capacity in their mid-20’s As they continue to age they lose between 9%-25% of respiratory capacity for every decade of life. The findings resulting from a 5,000 person clinical study group observed over a 30 year span showed that the way a person breathes is the primary measure of potential life span. (Framingham study). This tells me that we can change the decline in respiratory function by breathing more fully as often as possible and potentially decrease anxiety!

“For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on Earth” Sanskrit

That full diaphragmatic breath that was so easy when we were infants somehow became distorted and contracted as we learned over the years that is was often not safe to be completely ourselves. This “shut down” on so many levels is perhaps the core reason why there is so much shallow breathing and anxiety these days.

In addition, the minds default for survival always seems to go to the past and to the future to supposedly protect us from making the same mistakes or creating new ones. We resist the fact that everything changes. It is the moment to moment experience of life NOW that somehow gets lost in the fray!

A key to opening back to what Deepak Chopra calls “deep harmony of body, mind and Spirit that was yours at birth” is a full unrestricted breath…one after another. Is our goal to always breathe in this way? Well, perhaps intention is a better word here for if we can be aware of our breathing throughout the day, and at least start and end our day with at least 5 minutes of conscious breathing practice, our body will start to remember what it was like to be that open and unrestricted. Our hearts will celebrate as they are massaged by the diaphragm and open to love, and our minds will once again remind us of the capacity for wholeness and interconnection.

We won’t always be able to breathe this fully, but at least we can have the intention. It takes practice and a willingness to live the moment. Here is a mantra that you might want to use in your daily breath practice:

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. The moment is a gift of awareness. This also can be a great “break” during a very busy day when you realize that you are forgetting to breathe, or in the midst of emotional, mental, or physical stress.

As Dennis Lewis says in the last of The Ten Secrets of Authentic Breathing, “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.”

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Every Breath As A Prayer

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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