Breathe ...

"When your heart is heavy, when you want to feel alive ... breathe" says Danielle La Porte.

Through simple synchronicity, I have been reading a lot about breathing from various sources over the last few weeks, and so I thought I would share some of that with you.

Being a personal growth facilitator and a life coach, I am drawn to anything that involves leading a life filled with joy, authenticity, truth, openness and connectness.  So therefore, many of the books and articles I read are along those lines, firstly because I love reading them, and secondly because I love sharing what I have loved about them.  And so, one of the books I am currently reading is by Sonia Choquette, "The Answer Is Simple ... Love Yourself, Live Your Spirit"   In it, she talks about how by connecting more with your spirit, you begin to hear life's song more deeply; you'll be more capable of listening to and actually absorbing messages from others and the world around you. ...And with this new found quiet, your attention will be drawn to the sound, feeling and vibration of your inner voice.  You'll begin to hear your guidance."  

She then goes on to say that by breathing deeply, you claim your spirit and bring it into every cell of your body." She explains how when we get entangled in a drama (coming from the ego self) we stop breathing deeply and sometimes even hold our breath.  What happens then is that the body does not get enough oxygen and then goes more deeply into fear and anxiety, creating a viscous cycle of self-debilitating negativity.   

Haven't you been told, in the midst of your anger, fear, anxiety ... "breathe - just breathe?!" Intrinsically, we know what to do.  I know for sure that we have all felt, at some stage in our lives, such deep pain and anguish, that breathing even becomes painful.  My mom, after having lost my dad this year and being together with him for almost 50 years, went to the doctor the other day, complaining of constant, uncomfortable, deep burping.  The doctor explained to her that with all the stress, fear, anxiety and pain around my dad's death, she was actually gulping air (unconsciously - obviously in her pain, her breathing must be really shallow and at times she is not breathing and so her body is needing the oxygen and she gulps the air around her) and this was causing her discomfort and the constant need to burp!! Mind-blowing!!  

Sonia Choquette concludes this part by saying "to love your Spirit - to live your Spirit - you must breathe,"  and she gives a number of exercises to do some beautiful breathing.

Thinking about it, many meditation techniques focus on the breath and most visualization and visioning exercises require you to get into a relaxed state, which involves deep breathing.  So in actual fact, we are really connecting with our Spirit.

In one of the chapters in the Firestarter Sessions that a group of us is working through, Danielle LaPorte talks about transforming pain into something beautiful and she describes the beautiful Buddhist meditation technique of Tonglen, which is Tibetan for "sending and taking" and is about overcoming fear and suffering. 

She sums it up as "Breathe in for all of us and breathe out for all of us.  Breathe in suffering - yours, others, the world's.  Breathe out compassion - for yourself, for others, for the world."  

How magnificent is that?!! 

She describes in more detail how to Tonglen and then ends off by saying, "Now do it for other people's suffering. Please.  For that homeless man on the street, in winter.  Cold and demoralized   Inhale his agony.  Exhale comfort and transformation.  The jobless folks with families to feed.  Cancer patients fighting to live. People gone mad. Soldiers who kill and the families they destroy.  Take in the wreckage. turn it into light and give back compassion and tenderness."

"When your heart is heavy, when you want to feel alive ... breathe." 

I LOVE it!!