Monday, December 11, 2017

Start with the breath.

Conscious Breathing

Start with your breath: Our first breath in life, our first breath in existence, we breathe in; our last breath, we breathe out. Those are the two most important breaths that we have. One brings us into this world; one takes us out of this world. And almost every other breath we forget, we are not conscious of. And if we start just listening to that breath, in and out, up and down, just listening to the power and how it feels, that's the key to the consciousness and awareness of all living things around you.”
Steve Karlin (“Wisdom of the Animals,” Parabola; Fall 2017, p. 35)

So, this morning my laptop would not boot up. It turned on to the screen saver and that's as far as it would go. When that happens, I may as well be sitting on a flaming asteroid in the back side of an unknown galaxy for all that I understand about cause and effect in the world of computers. I pounded on it, hit every key about a thousand times, said any number of profane words, and yelled so loud that Liza got up and left the room. Isn't that the response of an enlightened being?!

Finally, I came to my senses, turned the laptop off and went to the kitchen to pour myself another cup of coffee. I gathered the remnants of my sanity, took some nice deep breaths, came back to my desk where the offensive brat of a computer sat. I ignored it and cleaned out a drawer—check book ledgers and day-timers dating back to 2008, loads of push pins and staples, an old cellphone or two, some photos of the the marble courthouse in Murphy, NC, and several out-of-date, never-used credit cards. I'll bet you have that drawer at your house, too. After all that, while I breathed and listened to Liza, who crept back in once the hollering stopped, snore, I calmed down. I hit the power button on the laptop, and voila! It started right up! This mystery is deeper than can even be imagined—at least by me.

Breathing is the one thing that can bring us back to earth from a rage-fueled galaxy far, far away. It is an amazing gift that is overlooked about 99% of the time. Just a few conscious breaths, feeling the air move into your belly, and out again, will cause all manner of physiological changes in your body. According to Steve Karlin, founder of Wildlife Associates, which is dedicated to educating people about wild animals, the conscious breath is also the entryway to greater awareness of everything around us. The instant we shift our concentration to our breath, we begin to hear what we weren't hearing before. If we're outside, that might be songbirds, wind rattling the branches of trees, dogs calling to one another in the distance. It is as though we wake up to our environment. Our good and reliable brain blocks out most distracting sounds, especially when we are focused on a task, so we have to intentionally move our awareness back to our breath to “boot up” again.

I hope you are not like me. I hope when frustration seizes you, you don't beat and bang and curse. But, if you are just a little like me, remember to breathe. Three times, slowly, consciously, down and back, remembering that this is a gift—the gift of life itself.

                                                                 In the Spirit,

                                                                    Jane

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