Breathe

It all started with the breath; the intake of air that filled our lungs and gave us life; the magical inhale and exhale that allowed us to embrace our existence on this earth.

'Just' air.

We left the safety of water and cried because we were ripped from our ever-flowing home but, soon enough, we learnt that there was another element that gave us life and allowed us to be: air, the ethereal vehicle for our waking and being. 

We’ve been breathing since the moment we were born and that is the only thing that distinguishes the dead from the living; breathing, being, the beautiful existence on this earth plane.

Oftentimes, we take our breath for granted and forget its life-giving force; we forget that if we don’t fully breathe, then we are not truly living. Us, human beings, sometimes forget to wholly, deeply, lovingly breathe and, as a result, we feel constricted by life. The lack of air makes us feel trapped, claustrophobic and, at points, lost. Well, at least that’s how I have felt many times.

Countless times, I’ve forgotten to breathe, to inhale life, to exhale out.

Why?

Something that comes naturally to us and yet I’ve forgotten to fully breathe when I’m nervous, to breathe when I’m feeling anxious, to breathe when I am in the middle of a panic attack, or to simply breathe when I feel overwhelmed and life gets heavy.

I have had to consciously remind myself and beg myself to breathe.

It has been in those moments of awareness that I have grounded myself in the present moment with a single breath, a simple reminder that I am here now, in this present moment and that I am blessed to be.  

Air is all around us and yet we hardly ever stop to really consider how without it we would not be here; nature would not be nature as we know it and life would not thrive. Perhaps because we cannot really see air, we disregard how essential it is but this life-giving element has supported our existence and that of everything around us for millions and millions of years. 

Beautiful being, come back to your centre.

Ground yourself in the now. Breathe.

Whatever you are going through, please, breathe. Pause, take a deep, heartfelt breath.

That simple yet powerful action will shift your perspective. That essential and profound inhalation and deep exhalation can transmute your dark moment and allow you to transform fear into love and gratitude; all it takes is a conscious willingness to inhale, a precious pause and a savouring of that awe-inspiring aliveness, exhaling with gratitude. 

Breathe. Pause. Be.