WE were born with the ability to breathe. As an infant our breathing was excellent if not perfect. Our breathing was not yet tainted with experience.
As we grew older our breathing changed due to experience, especially as adults. WE suffered from adjustment: adjustment to pollution that taints the air around us (smoke, combustion, air pollution, etc.), and our own sources of pollution: for example, smoking, drugs, anxiety, stress, and coping with illness in our own ways.
Learning to breathe again - as we did when we were infants- can be a task: quite difficult. However, it can be achieved even if it is, for just a brief moment.
This brings to mind the act of slowing down. Slowing down, like breathing is something we distance ourselves from as we grow older. Before we know it we suffer from the "committee" in our heads - or the "the squirrel's nest".
Life, stress, relationships, substances, coping practices, and even the search for something greater than ourselves can be: noisy, debilitating, and can or will cause US to lead ourselves into moments of insanity.
Learning to slow down can be a task: quite difficult. However, it can be achieved even if it is, for just a brief moment.
We can succeed in the search for breath and the act of slowing down (tranquil moments) through destruction - destruction of the unhealthy habits WE created in our past that lead us to NOW. WE CAN, rebuild healthy habits, sober habits, and our ability to embrace: to live.
Through prayer and meditation we can achieve these moments. Taking brief pauses to revisit those things we are truly grateful for, truly thankful for, and what brings us a genuine feeling of joy can help us to breathe and slow down - or slow down and then breathe.
Paying attention to the ENTIRE moment is an act of embrace: the colors, movements, the smell, the feel or touch, the sound. Listening to your heartbeat, living through every living and mechanical motion slowly, paying close attention to our physical, feeling every step, feeling our heels touch the ground and closely following through until the tips of our toes leave the ground next, stopping to listen to our own heartbeat or someone in passing.
Upon putting my ear to my daughter's chest to listen and understand her heartbeat I quiet my mind, I stop listening to the world around me, I feel her small harmless structure against my ear. I listen, I breathe, I listen, and her heartbeat comes to life. I trace the sound, the touch, and our connection with my senses, and I become comfortably lost inside the moment.
Sitting down after a hike, resting in a comfortable position under a tree and listening to the wind rush my eardrums as it brushes my face, hearing the symphony of nature: wind through the trees, birds in harmony, even the distant sound of traffic petting pavement: absorbing the temperature, the warm, soothing mixture of a calm breeze and inspiring sunlight.
Stepping out of my house, planting both feet on the step or the sidewalk, looking forward at the world before me, without taking my feet off the ground or disconnecting from the earth, I turn my head slowly to the left and listen and look, slowly turn my head to the right and listen and look: and trust in my ears as much as I do my eyes. Feeling the calm, cool morning air rest on my face and hands, hear my heartbeat as I mind little, and let my senses speak to my thoughts.
Thanking my HiGHER POWER for today: for the ability to slow the pace of a minute and ripple my seconds so that I can breathe, listen, and let go - let go of my (the) self in a moment to experience the NOW - to let go of fear, to let go of the tears and pain I disguise by default, to let go of the noise and embrace my inner joy, to cuddle my gratitude, to understand serenity, to experience peace, breath, and a greater understanding of a tranquil moment. TODAY I KNOW there are many and I thank HIM for the ACCEPTANCE.
Breathe, listen: for NOW is a moment.
