Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 1

Introduction

We can live three weeks without food, three days without water, and only three minutes without air. To stay alive we have to breathe. Since spirit is that which makes us alive, breathing is a spirit-related matter.

We do not just need air to breathe in order to stay alive, we need clean, fresh air. Breathing clean, fresh air sustains our spirit, life, health, and well-being. Breathing polluted air weakens our spirit, reduces our quality of life, causes disease, and quickens death.

And yet, it is so easy for us to be mindless of breathing and the quality of the air we breathe. It is so easy for us to take for granted the air that is essential to our lives and the lives of others. Worst of all, it is easy for us to take for granted polluting the air we breathe, as if polluting the air we breathe is just a natural part of life. It isn't.

An Exercise in Spirit-Centered Breathing

Try this: If you live in or near a city, pick a high traffic time, and find a place to walk or sit near the traffic. Focus on your heart (not the organ, the core of your being), the center of your chest, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. This is where our spirit resides. 

Breathe in through your nose, breathe out, and take note of how you feel in your heart. 

Still focusing on your heart, continue breathing in and out through your nose. Take note of what you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. Take note of how you feel in your heart. Suspend forming an opinion about how you feel, just feel how you feel and remember it.

Next, take sometime to go to a highly wooded area during late spring or summer when there are lots of green leaves on the trees. Repeat the exercise you did in the high traffic area. Focus on your heart. Breathe. Take note of all of your sense perceptions and how you feel in your spirit. 

Compare and contrast the high traffic experience with the highly wooded experience. What was similar? What was different? Which feels more life-affirming in your heart?