For The Love Of Breath

Just Breathe

Inhale strength (I am strong). Hold (I am calm). Exhale ( I am at ease).

Inhale- I feel my ribs expanding and my shoulders draw back, helping to straighten my posture. I feel strong.

Hold- I feel the calm. I hold for as long as it feels good.

Exhale (Release)- I am at ease. I feel my shoulders relax, my head gets lighter and my belly unclenches tension. And then I build again.

I have been doing this in the morning before everyone wakes up. But, it doesn’t matter when, it really doesn’t.

A friend gave me these little meditation candles (below). They last about ten minutes. When I light a match at the beginning of my meditation, I think of the Janet Jackson song that starts out “like a moth to a flame burned by the fire, my love is blind can you see my desire”. Comes up every time. Just a weird side note.

I light the candle and place it at the front of my yoga mat and I begin. Sometimes I begin by rolling my shoulders back and/or rolling out my neck. My point in sharing that part is that meditation doesn’t have to be: “OK, NOW BREATHE. Oh, and also don’t have any thoughts”.

You can feel good just by being there with yourself and allowing time to connect. It may feel weird at first. I felt like I wasn’t doing it right until I realized, there is no “right”.

There are a lot of methods of meditation out there. And the more you may come across articles/podcasts/posts about it, you may think “I should do that”. You may reflect on the fact that you need more calm in your life or that the reason you yelled at your kid is because you don’t create time for calm and it just crept up and out of you. While that may be, there is no right time to start paying attention to your breath. But, I can affirm that breath does create calm. On the other hand, it can also create stronger feelings of anxiety. Breathing heavy (panic breathing or shortness of breath) will stir up all kinds of feelings during fight or flight, or dis-ease (not disease. Note the difference)*. For me, practicing meditation has allowed me to change my breathing patterns so that in times of stress, I become aware and am able to slow it down and pause rather than over react. That does not mean I never over react. Which is why it’s called a practice. It will never be perfect but, I can always keep trying.

So even if meditation is not your thing. Breath, has to be your thing because breath is life. Life is breath. For some reason, if I even see the word breath or breathe, I stop and pay attention to my own. Does that happen to you?

You can start right now. Pause.

Inhale as much as you can through your nose, hold for as long as you want, just hold. Then release that breath until it’s done. Do it one more time. And then, if you want, do it again. Just feel what it is to breathe. That’s life. That’s strength and calm and ease. It’s just WOW!

You can do it when you’re having spastic or worrying thoughts over something you have no control over or something you do. You can do it when you’re scared or nervous. It’s always there for you. Even if you think you don’t have time, you do. You’re doing it right now.

I think what held me back for a while was the counting. There are methods or guided meditations that invite you to breathe in for a certain count and breathe out for a certain count (many are different). For me, I would get all caught up in the timing. A guide would be at 5 when I already got to 5, then exhale before I was ready or after I had already exhaled. This made me feel lost. My mind and body connection wasn’t connecting with the person leading the meditation. And said instructor or guru must know what they are doing because they are so ENLIGHTENED! But, I’ve come to realize is that it is MY body and MY breath. I need to use it on my own time. Because everyone’s body is different, everyone’s breath is different too.

When you are ready, try it your own way. Inhale, hold, exhale with no numbers (but, maybe a mantra or two of your choice) and see how it feels. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Thoughts will come up, that’s ok. You may want to stop after a couple of breaths, that’s ok. It’s all OK. I literally thought about writing this during a meditation. That’s OK. And also, How very meta** ;)

Just like anything, meditation comes when YOU are ready. Not when someone else tells you you should.

Happy breathing,

Jess

*Note the correlations between dis-ease and disease. Listen to your body. Trust your feelings and intuition. It will guide you.

**Meta- pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., that consciously references or comments upon its own subject or features