Taking A Breath

Some moments are easier than others to choose love. In the face of abomination, we are more likely to want to close our hearts rather than find a way to keep them open. But cognitively we understand that closing down is never wise—that if we want to see a loving world, it has to start within our own skin.

The closing down has a pain in it. Life wants to flow through us. When we resist this, we suffer. Especially when we are hurting, especially when we are feeling deeply, life-force needs to move through us. This is what can best restore us to balance and make us once again intimate with ourselves and the stream of livingness we are part of—where we know who we are and our place here, our interconnectedness and belonging.

But how many of us allow this in our day-to-day lives? For most of us, our lives have become so busy and our bodies so tight that few remember to take an adequate breath—one that can allow feeling and life-force energy to flow.

Instead, we eat, drink, take an Advil or an antidepressant, or point a finger at our partner or the tragic state of affairs in the world, even as the pain in our bodies increases and, with it, our urge to separate from ourselves and from existence. And, quite against our heart’s deeper desires, our contribution to ourselves, our families, and our community becomes more pain.

What if a deeper breath, right now, is the greatest service you can offer to yourself, your beloved, and the planet? What if it were the most radical form of activism you could participate in right this second on planet Earth?

A full breath.

And then another.

Allowing the energies within to begin to move, allowing balance to be restored right where you are…