Did You Breathe Today?

Did you breathe today? Think about it. Have you felt your breath? Lungs? Are you aware of your existence? I want you to take a moment to sit back, close your eyes and take three strong yet calm breaths. I'll do them with you...

Did you do it? I did mine. If so, I bet you felt a difference. Did you realize you had a body, a chest with life energy flowing through it? If you didn't do it, that's okay, thought I hope you'll reconsider.

What is all the breathing about in yoga? Pranayama. Have you heard "If you can breathe you are doing yoga" or a variation of it. For me, it's about living. Waking up the sleeping or reviving the dead. Yes, the dead. There are multiple forms of life and therefore multiple forms of death. As I say, zombie's walk but they're not alive. 

Did you breathe today? Are you living or existing through space? The limbs can be alight by electricity as Frankenstein's poor monster. Or lived in like a child shivering in the sprinklers. Teeth chattering  and still not ready to stop feeling the day's fun. 

So often we walk around a bit numb. This is no judgment. I do it too. Life can go along without our realizing we were there. "Is it Friday already? Where did the week go?" It passed all the same, we just weren't there. 

Did you breathe today?  Cry? Did your body ache from an overdose of joy? I hope so. If not, sit back and take three strong breaths. Life is within you. Let it circulate your blood. 

Intention Of The Week: Breathe

This upcoming week, I will be working in a position I have no desire to take and was put into abruptly.  For the second time, I have been put into a situation I'm not ready for.  The first time I survived, obviously. That doesn't mean I have to be okay with it. 


I need to breathe.  I almost cried driving my car thinking about the week to come.  I attempted ujjayi breathing.  In the end, I got it together a little forcibly.  My husband was in the car and I didn't want him to think I was having a panic attack. 


Breath is Life.  Breathing keeps me, keeps us all, living.  Breathing during practice gets us through the tough positions and makes us feel more alive and ready when it's over.  There is a calming effect getting the extra air. Or at least paying attention to the air we are taking in.  I will need all I can get.


Talking to my husband, I understand, there is a lesson in the situation.  And it can be worse.  He did agree I don't have to like it.  If it gets tough, I  have to remember to breathe.  My life is not ending.


Like in yoga practice, when it gets hard, use more breath!  Remember to breathe this week.


Namaste my friends,


~Writer Yogi