JUST BREATHE

“When you were born, your whole body breathed. Every cell quivered with the vitality of the breath. Every bone, muscle, and organ moved with every breath. Every nerve was energized wit it, every blood cell carried it, and every moment took as its meter the phrasing of your breath. Today most of us have forgotten what it feels like to breathe fully and wholly with the vitality of a newborn infant. We have forgotten this but we have not lost it. In reclaiming the fullness of your breathing we also reclaim many other dimensions of our lives.”

The Breathing Book, Donna Farhi

I picked up this classic to reinvigorate my breathing practice the other day. How easy it is to forget about the incredible power of the breath in our day to day lives! We face so many factors that push our bodies into a state of constriction...and our breath is one of the first places this can show up.

Within moments of engaging in full body breathing practice I noticed so much. First I noticed layers of grief and tension, awareness of tightness in my body and places I was holding on. I stayed with it, noticing the changing sensations as they continued to release and dissipate with the breath. As the body let go, I opened up to a sense of aliveness and vitality waiting just below those thin layers of tension. My mind and body felt tingly and spacious. My heart felt more open. 

Thanks Donna for the inspiration and reminder to breathe like babies and puppies, FULLY!