“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” – Isaiah 30:21
What if within the passage below you added the word “Breath” in companionship with “Me”? There is great inspiration to be found out in the world – within nature, our Spiritual beliefs, and within others. But what if we realized for just a moment that we also carry something with us that can provide not only a means towards a healthy, vital life – but also guidance as we step forward. Not a voice behind us…..but the simple breath taken in and given back out.
I AM LEADING YOU along a way that is uniquely right for you. The closer to Me you grow, the more fully you become your true self–the one I designed you to be. Because you are one of a kind, the path you are traveling with Me diverges increasingly from that of other people. In My mysterious wisdom and ways, I enable you to follow this solitary path while staying in close contact with others. In fact, the more completely you devote yourself to Me, the more freely you can love people.
Marvel at the beauty of a life intertwined with My Presence. Rejoice as we journey together in intimate communion. Enjoy the adventure of finding yourself through losing yourself in Me.
Take some moments this week to be present to what your breath is telling you and be willing to listen.
*A tight and contracted breath when interacting with another may be telling you to let go and be present within the moment in the fullest sense. An entire relationship can change as it is breathed into.
*A held breath might provide wisdom as to what is making you afraid. Awareness of this can be transforming.
* A rapid and shallow breath may take you into understanding what you may be running away from as you slow the breath down.
*A full embodied breath can lead you to a deeper enjoyment of the delicious moment before you and an anticipation of the next.
The quality of our breath and the sound it makes travels with us wherever we may go. Might it not be a wise idea to pay attention?
“Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out”, is a beloved saying of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn. As the video shows above, we are not alone in the act of respiration. Our Earth that sustains and feeds us is breathing as well. The question could be asked, what are we feeding her??
The Institute of Hearth Math who has done many years of scientific research on the power of the heart to inform our actions, feelings and thoughts believes that we should ask this question. The passage below from their most recent newsletter addresses this question:
What Are You Feeding the Field?
This Earth Day, we all can pause to assess what our emotions are contributing to our environment, how we are feedingthefieldenvironment. This goes beyond conserving and respecting Earth’s resources. Everyone must ask, “What am I feeding the field?”Personal experience tells us when we are angry, inhospitable and uncaring, we affect not only ourselves, but also those around us. Consider how one unkind, thoughtless or angry person affects a roomful of people; the feeling of discomfort and negative energy is noticeable. Conversely, have you ever felt the change a room’s atmosphere undergoes upon the entrance of a vibrant, cheerful or positive person?Whatifpeoplearoundtheworldintentionallyexperiencedsincerelove, care, compassionandotherpositiveemotionssimultaneouslyandfedthispositiveenergyintotheglobalfieldenvironment?This question led to an experiment, and after nearly five years, more than 40,000 members of the resulting Global Coherence Initiative, with members in 87 countries, regularly feed positive energy and heart-focused care and intention into the planetary field environment.Collectively, we create a field that interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field and energetic systems. As people intentionally send coherent love and care to the world, a more powerful heart-filled environment is created. This helps to build a reservoir of positive energy that benefits the planet. This reservoir can then be utilized to help bring balance and stabilization to people, thereby making it easier to find solutions to problems like climate change, the destruction of the rain forests and other global issues.There is more to this phenomenon than the feeling you get. HeartMath researchers repeatedly have categorized real mental and physical changes study participants undergo when they experience positive and negative emotions. HeartMath and other research shows that focusing on core heart-felt emotions can enhance one’s connection with others, and that this connection extends far beyond the individual.The research article Coherence: Bridging Personal, Social, and Global Health concludes that being responsible for and increasing our personal coherence are not only reflected in improved personal health and happiness but also feed into and are reflected in a global field environment. ” Institute of Heart Math**************************************
As we breathe from a place informed by our heart our breath opens and becomes more fluid and easeful. We then change the environment of this “global field”….thus making better decisions for the health of our planet, which is essentially intimately connected to our own health. Remember on this 2012 Earth Day celebration………EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY!
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.
Happy Birth-Day to the long awaited book that has many of your favorite posts from BreathingSpaces within the pages!! My heart is wide open as I deliver this book into your hands, hearts and souls. My deepest wish is that this book will be of service to those who read it and that it will encourage pauses in life to simply be with the breath and the sacredness of this life we have been given.
Here is some advance praise as well as links where you can purchase one of three options – Downloadable with beautiful formatting and the ability to print out each week’s focus for a daily reminder; e-book for Kindle, iPad, etc; and soft cover spiral bound to place in your library as a treasured resource. For a SNEAK PREVIEW go to: http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/ or the Our Daily Breath tab on this blog.
A Road-Map to Living an Inspired Life!
Richard Cawte, Ph.D.
That says it all.
Life has become so hectic for so many of us, with so many things to do every day (and never enough time to do them!). In Give us this Day our Daily Breath, Gaye Abbott gives us a clear, easy-to-follow guide that helps us find places of calmness and deep ease from which the day can emerge in a fresh, vibrant way.
We tend to pay attention to peripheral things in our lives and yet so often the very thing that sustains us – the act of breathing – is something we barely pause to consider. What I love about this book is that it brings the act of breathing to the forefront, allowing the reader to explore his or her relationship with the world through the breath itself. It’s an inspired piece of writing, flowing from the heart.
Giving us weekly practices is a stroke of genius, because it makes it easy for the reader to experiment and adopt new ways of breathing bit-by-bit. That’s why I love the book so much. It’s more than just a book. It’s a road-map to living an in-spired life, a step-by-step manual that invites us to align ourselves with the rhythms of the natural world – and then shows us how.
Life throws up many challenges, but as Gaye says: “the breath is a tool to anchor you. Allow it to be the constant thread around which you weave your life.” Wonderful advice.
Truly a book to read, delight, rest and reflect in!
Richard Cawte, Ph.D., International Business & Author of the Natural Wealth Course, www.ResonanceWithLife.com
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Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath is a wise, graceful, kind and gently humorous guide to awakening more fully through weekly explorations of breath.
By relating the natural breathing rhythms to the cycle of the seasons, Gaye Abbott invites readers to reconnect with a sense of being at home on Earth and in our bodies. This fresh perspective combines with personal story and observation to offer valuable new insight into the healing and transformational power of breathing.
Lea Bayles, M.A., transformational coach, speaker and author, creator of the Replenish Your Soul series of guided meditations lea@leabayles.com, www.leabayles.com
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Give Us this Day our Daily Breath is a wonderful book born from Gaye Abbott’s decades-long practice of yoga, meditation, awareness, mindfulness and joy, celebrating the breath each and every day like the gift and prayer that it is. Inspirational, creative, healing and practical, Gaye offers insights, exercises and easy-to-follow practices that allow us to fully appreciate and embody this act of breathing and all it contains. Gaye writes, “When we come together with another life form, we share the breath in the air that surrounds us. We take of the same breath, so to speak. Down through the millennia this has continued. In fact, we are breathing and sharing the recycled air of the dinosaurs, the very first humans, the dolphins, and the trees…In many of the classes, workshops and retreats, I often have people sit back to back and feel their own breath first, then connect with the breath rhythm of the other without attempting to change theirs. Almost everyone noticed, in a short period of time, that the breath would synchronize and become one.
Perhaps it was always one to begin with. Through this interconnected basic biological process we can feel each other, and with acute knowing understand what is within the other – even if we do not consciously acknowledge it. What if each one of us joined another – or others – in sharing a peaceful breath rhythm. Would the world change?”
Yes it would, and with Gaye as our guide, it is bound to. And what a joyful and transformational journey it will be. Thank you Gaye for giving us this day our daily breath and reminding us of the incredible beauty, grace and power of this thing called breath that we too often take for granted!
Leza Lowitz, #1 bestselling Author of Yoga Heart: Lines on the Six Perfections www.lezalowitz.com
OFFERINGS: Downloadable (Instant PDF Download Below) with beautiful formatting and the ability to print out each week’s focus for a daily reminder OR through LuLu – e-book (EPub/iPad, Nook, Kindle etc); and soft cover spiral bound or regular soft bound to place in your library as a treasured resource!
“We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He(She) enlighten our minds.”
~Swami Vivekananda/translation of the Gayatri Mantra
As we in the Northern hemisphere experience the transition of moving from the darkest day of the year and turning into the gradual return of light, our interconnected global neighbors in the Southern hemisphere are experiencing the opposite. This turning is felt in the deepest reaches of our bodies, minds, hearts and souls.
I ask of you today to stop. Stop and take a transition breath from business to stillness, from stress to absolute relaxation, from moving into the future or holding on to the past – to being present in this moment only. Find a moment of rest and simply being to take in the exquisite images and hauntingly beautiful voice that are part of the video below.
Breathe….and remember why you are here. Simply to love and be loved.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview and Reviews can be found here:
BREATHING SPACES 