Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 4: Awareness

Once we've tried the basic spirit-centered breathing experiments, we have taken our first steps to no longer taking the air we breathe for granted.

Again, since we have to breathe to stay alive and spirit is that which makes us alive, breathing is a spirit-related matter. So is the quality of the air we breathe.

Our Homes

Wherever you are take note of the quality of the air you breathe. Often the air in our home is more polluted than the air outside. What chemicals and gasses affect the quality of air you breathe in your home? What can you do to reduce indoor pollution and improve it's quality? 

Simply switching from chemical-based cleaning products to vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and hydrogen peroxide can help. Adding air-cleaning in-door plants also helps. And, depending on where you live, opening the windows occasionally to let in cleaner outdoor air can help as well. 

Traveling

When you are walking, riding a bike, driving a car, taking public transportation, or flying take note of the quality of the air you breathe. Is it fresh and clean? Can you take alternative means of transportation or routes where you can avoid combustion engine exhaust and breathe cleaner, fresher air?

Our Destinations

When you arrive at your destination- office, factory, store, restaurant, someone else's home, a park, a hotel- what is the quality of air? How does it affect your spirit? Is the air helpful or harmful for you to breathe?

Conclusion

Unfortunately, in the highly industrialized West, much of the air we breath is polluted. Improving its quality begins with a heightened awareness of how essential clean, fresh air is to our health and well-being and the health and well-being of all the living.

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 3: Aromas

The breathe of life we breathe is often aromatic. Flowers, coffee, soap, recently cut grass, smoke from a chimney, steaks being grilled, freshly baked bread, cookies right out of the oven, perfumes and colognes, body odors, bathroom and liter box smells, chemicals, car exhaust, and a decaying carcass are just a few things that might scent the air we breathe on any given day.  

Have you noticed that it is when they change that we become aware of the aromas in the air we breathe?

Three Experiments to Try

Experiment 1 : When you become aware that the aroma of the air you're breathing changes, pause.

Focus on the core of your being, your heart, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe the aroma into your heart, hold, and breathe out. Repeat at least three times. 

What do you feel in your heart? How does the aroma in the air you breathe affect your spirit?

Experiment 2: Buy some dried white sage leaves, a small smudge bundle. You'll also need something to safely burn it in and some matches or a lighter.

Before you burn the sage, focus on your heart, the core of your being, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe into your heart and breathe out a few times. Take note of how your heart feels.

While focusing on your heart and breathing in and out, light the sage, let it burn for a bit, then blow out the flame.

Still focusing on your heart, breathe in the smoke of the sage, just enough so as not to be uncomfortable, and breathe out. Do this for several minutes and be mindful of any changes in your spirit.

What did you notice? Did your spirit change or remain the same? If it changed, how so?

Experiment 3: Buy one bottle each of the following high quality, pure, organic, therapeutic grade essential oils: lavender, peppermint, and lemon. Wait until after the following experiment to learn what all you can do with these oils.

Place the oils in front of you. Focus on your heart, the core of your being, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe into your heart and breathe out a few times. Take note of how your heart feels.

Open the lemon essential oil, put one or two drops in the palm of your hand, put the cap back on the bottle, and rub your palms together. Lift your palms up to your nose and breathe the aroma into your heart. Rub your palms together again and breathe in the aroma into your heart again. Repeat as many time as you like.

Focus on your spirit. Does it feel different than before smelling the lemon essential oil? If so, how so? How would you describe its effect on your spirit?

Do the same exercise with the lavender, then the peppermint oil.

Afterwards, learn what all you can use these essential oils for. Notice if you experienced for yourself what you learn from reading about the oils.

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 2: Wind, Breath, and Spirit

Thumos and spiritus the Ancient Greek and Roman words for spirit (that which makes alive) also referred to both wind and breath. The exercise that follows explores the connection between wind, breath, and spirit.

Go outside. Find a place to walk, sit or stand where you will not be interrupted.

Notice the wind. See and hear it rustling the leaves of the trees. It makes them alive. 

Feel the wind touching your face. How does it feel?

How would you describe the wind? Gentle or harsh? Hot, warm, cool, or cold? Humid or dry? Give it a personality. In Western culture, the four winds of the four directions are considered male spirits. Does the wind you feel, feel like a male?

Focus on the core of your being, your heart, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe into and out of your heart. Notice how your heart feels. Without forming an opinion about how you feel, just feel what you feel.

Breathe in and fill your lungs with the wind. Breathe out. Continue breathing in the wind and breathing out. Continue breathing the wind into your heart for as long as feels right to you.

How do you feel after breathing the wind into your heart? Do you feel the same or different than before you breathed in the wind? Do you feel more like how you described the wind or not? 

Whenever you have the opportunity, practice this exercise with different types and wind and see what happens.

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?