It’s really quite simple. Breathe. How many times have I heard someone say, “Take a deep breath”. Usually that would be at a moment of crisis or critical action. It would have been a time I needed to summon all my resources to focus on something I needed to do or face up to.
How insightful, sitting there before me all my life. Could the importance of a breath have been made any more apparent? Could its power have been made more obvious?
I have finally recognized that breathing means so much more than sucking in air and blowing it out again, although that is a critical part of what needs to be done. In a very real way, breathing supplies me with oxygen, an important part of the energy I need to stay alive and do things.
However, a “deep” breath does more than give me a good burst of oxygen. It focuses my mind on what is happening right now. It puts aside all the distractions clamoring for attention. My fears are ignored, my anxiety is put on hold, all the activity around me is pushed to the margins. All my attention is for that instant brought to my deep breath.
First there is a moment of intense relaxation. Then I am girded, supported, prepared for whatever needs to be done.
How often have I done this simple thing. Breathe deeply before taking action. Then I moved on to the next thing and forgot about my breathing. I had my hand on the door knob to a vast resource, and only made slight use of it. Breathing is something I do almost constantly, and all I have had to do is pay attention to it. Not for just a passing moment, but constantly.
This constant awareness is gradually becoming a new habit. All my mental and physical energy can be gathered together and I become so much more engaged with the present reality. This can go on, moment after moment after moment. I know more, I am more aware, I am better prepared to do what needs to be done.
The energy I feel in the moment is so much more powerful. It fills my whole body, not just my billowing lungs. I see, I hear, I move, I touch with an intensity I hardly knew in the past. All this can happen just because I am aware that I am breathing.
Breathing now summons powerful forces that have been lurking inside of me. My breath becomes more than a gentle breeze coming and going. It becomes a whirlwind, a hurricane, a tornado of focused energy.
Perhaps it is time for many of us to breathe together. What an awesome effect that might have.