Be present to life breathing around you, ever mindful of the artful ways that breath pulses among the minutest of cells and atoms woven amidst the field of Being that captures each one of us within the next inhale.
All breathing for and with each another, an exchange of intimacy that connects us in levels so deep that even the whale in the ocean depths senses into the next breath that you will take.
Be still for just a moment and listen to the symphony of breath that fills every moment with the exquisite pleasure of being Alive Now.
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!
“Did you know that you aren’t really breathing? It is the planet’s atmospheric pressure that sends breath into the body. With the process we call breathing, our body simply changes its shape in such a way that the pressure in the chest cavity is lowered, thus permitting air to be pushed into the body during inhalation. During passive breathing, as when sleeping, it is the universe that breathes for us. On the exhalation, we do nothing; the body tissues that have stretched during inhalation simply spring back to their original shape.” Anna Hunt
When we consider that the cosmos is doing our breathing for us it reflects an unlimited potential for freedom. The deep interconnection with everything around and beyond us feeds and nourishes our individual and interconnected lives at a level so vast that it is rather mind boggling. Even the trees participate as the lungs of the Earth!
Imagine that when you are asleep (and awake!) there is nothing that you are having “to do”, but instead are gifted with the experience of complete freedom and support in simply being. You are being kept alive and vibrant by forces beyond your control, ones that are intimately collaborating on your behalf.
The oxygen in your blood powers your metabolism, circulation and your ability to heal. Decrease the levels in oxygen and you will be prone to illness, mental/emotional instability, and weak physical and mental performance.
You receive air and you give it back again without any effort on your part. The eternal circle of giving and receiving born out of the freedom of living in this human body.
Since we have this much freedom within this crucial biological action that keeps us alive and vibrant, then there is no reason not to live within our fullest potential by expressing that unique, rich, juicy soul purpose here and now – to acknowledge that the natural world and the much larger cosmos is collaborating to keep us alive.
If you were given a gift of breath from the Earth/Universe as basic as this wouldn’t you do something with the freedom that this gives you to play in and reciprocate?
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:http://gayeabbott.com/books/
How you breathe is the way in which you live your life. If this statement is true, then how would you like to breathe? Shallow and restricted or full bodied and naturally?
Use a focus each week for the entire year to promote the vibrant aliveness that is your natural birth right!
“Are you breathing just a little and calling it life?” Mary Oliver
“If you try to comprehend air before breathing it, you will die.” Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening
Following this quote by Mark Nepo is a very brief story about a Hindu sage centuries ago. “One day in the morning of their morning prayers, the sage suddenly rose and ushered his students away from the monastery. He rushed about them and shooed them like little ducks back into life, proclaiming, “The day is to be experienced, not understood!”
Every activity in life is an act of making divine and sacred love. What could be more sensual than simply breathing?! …and as Mary Oliver questions how fully are you really breathing/living!!
We arise in love with every inhale we take as we receive into our bodies the lover of breath. Without conscious awareness we open ourselves to receive this gift and then complete the circle as we exhale back out giving to other life forms around us. The trees and plants embrace our carbon dioxide and give back to us the oxygen that we crave. Interconnected.
Sensuality is completely enjoying and fully appreciating what the senses give to us in any given moment. If breath was your lover it would be so much more enjoyable to allow it to be all that it is meant to be so that it could make love to you. Not a technique or an understanding of breaths anatomy and physiology, but pure unadulterated pleasure and acceptance in feeling the breath move in and out.
You can hear breath moving in and out, but cannot see breath. I sometimes wonder if we could see breath what it would look like – the pure energy of love itself? No one knows exactly what causes the heart to beat or how that first air breath is ignited when we are born into this world. All we know is that at first it feels something foreign to our being having come from a watery world…and then we experience the kiss of breath and are never the same again.
Our bodies undulate – open and then surrender – with each breath we take if we have welcomed the fullness of breath into our being. Our voice can be heard by others and our songs can tenderly touch the parts of us that are yearning to dance. This is not something that we try to comprehend. We are simply and sensuously breathing.
Deeply within our blueprint lies the part of us that accepts simply being breathed…a metaphor for life lived in alignment with the creative force that resides within. One can know this place in any moment….slippery dolphin touch teaching you to embody the movement and sensuality of breath, dark earth and evergreen smells as reminders of where you have come from, wind sounds wrapping themselves around like the finest of silky garments, tastes of air across palate, slithering past the fine hairs that line your nasal passages, lying with another and joining breath as if weaving a fine art piece, lustily laughing a series of exhales which then welcomes the in breath with open arms.
How could you ever go back to taking breath for granted? It enlivens, paints, sculpts, expands, awakens and enhances your life with every inhale and exhale, cherishing you as no other can.
Will you cherish breath and experience the sensuality of life? Re-member…..you innately know how!
Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:
BREATHING SPACES 