Back Around to Breathing
Today I am grateful for safe travels, family time, and future direction for our son Sam. I am also grateful for the breathing that helps ground me in the present moment.
Before I go back to the A-Z list I am working on, I want to go back to breathing. It's not that I stopped breathing, obviously. Rather, I forget to pay attention to it. I stop tuning in to the calming and guiding force that it can be. We all do this forgetting, this lack of presence. Much of the time.
My theory is that this lack of attention to our breathing is compounding plenty of other things going on in our current society and culture. Fast-paced and too often frenzied, we go too fast in our minds and multi-tasking for too long and we end up exhausted at the least. We also end up mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and/or physically sick.
So back to the breath. Breathe in. Breathe out. Pause on the in-breath and then inhale peace. Pause on the out-breath and then exhale tension. Try it. A few times. A few more times. Then some more.
This is my goal. Pay attention to more breaths today than I did yesterday.
It's ironic that one of our most vital functions, our breathing in of life-giving oxygen, is taken for granted most of the time. To return to this amazing force and draw strength from it is amazing grace.
Pause. Get back around to some mindful breathing today. Moments matter. We don't need to practice breathing in the instinctual sense. We could benefit from practicing it in the sense of being fully present to it. Practice makes progress possible.
Before I go back to the A-Z list I am working on, I want to go back to breathing. It's not that I stopped breathing, obviously. Rather, I forget to pay attention to it. I stop tuning in to the calming and guiding force that it can be. We all do this forgetting, this lack of presence. Much of the time.
My theory is that this lack of attention to our breathing is compounding plenty of other things going on in our current society and culture. Fast-paced and too often frenzied, we go too fast in our minds and multi-tasking for too long and we end up exhausted at the least. We also end up mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and/or physically sick.
So back to the breath. Breathe in. Breathe out. Pause on the in-breath and then inhale peace. Pause on the out-breath and then exhale tension. Try it. A few times. A few more times. Then some more.
This is my goal. Pay attention to more breaths today than I did yesterday.
It's ironic that one of our most vital functions, our breathing in of life-giving oxygen, is taken for granted most of the time. To return to this amazing force and draw strength from it is amazing grace.
Pause. Get back around to some mindful breathing today. Moments matter. We don't need to practice breathing in the instinctual sense. We could benefit from practicing it in the sense of being fully present to it. Practice makes progress possible.
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