It all begins with awareness
For the last thirty-four days, I have had the honor of leading a group of gorgeous humans in a pretty deep breath practice every morning. You might recall my going on and on about it in October as this particular breath technique has been a lifeline for me since June.
This has been a deeply transformational experience for many people in the group. I’ll talk about the power of consistency and community another time. Today I want to talk about the awareness that blossoms from a daily breath work practice.
These are some of the things that these gorgeous humans shared (I’m paraphrasing):
I am noticing I am angry and feeling I am angry at the same time.
I am noticing that things that usually trigger me don’t have the same effect.
This practice gives me access to parts of me that I have avoided, to my own detriment.
Today I became aware of a deep sense of contentment within me.
Sometimes I dread showing up for this practice because it doesn’t always feel good. (Yet they show up anyway, every single day.)
I notice that there is another voice within me. A nicer voice that counteracts to the mean voice. That kind voice keeps getting louder.
Each of these revelations is a newsletter in and of itself. The breath work is personal. It has its own intelligence. The breath goes where it needs to go without our needing to direct the process. Healing happens. Awareness happens. Awakening happens.
Conscious breath has the power to rewire our neural programming. Our internal dialogue, our emotional and psychological responses to external stimuli, our behaviors and habits: this is our neural programming.
Conscious breath helps us rise above the programming so we can see ourselves more clearly. We can observe the internal dialogue without believing it. We can experience big and uncomfortable emotions without acting on them. We can notice that we feel calmer and more peaceful inside. We can begin to hear that kind, loving voice with more volume.
This was my experience this week. Something rather large came up regarding each of my four daughters. And I have been noticing my internal responses look something like this:
I’m not equipped to handle this.
I’m going to say the wrong thing.
I’m not soft enough.
Do I tell them I love them enough?
What did I do wrong?
What could I have done differently?
Those are heavy thoughts. I have been aware of these thoughts and countered them consciously telling myself “you are doing your best.” But the thoughts have lingered on and off giving me more opportunities to counter them.
The variety of circumstances that arrived in the last two weeks stirred up these fears within me. It triggered my nervous system to respond in fear. My breath practice helped me be aware of this, rather than engaging and believing those fears. My practice of self-nourishment creates that shift.
I ask myself:
How can I love more? Where can I be softer? Where can I listen more deeply? Where can I accept more completely?
It all begins with awareness. We cannot ask ourselves those kinds of questions if we are immersed in negative thinking. We cannot be kind to ourselves or to others if we believe negative thoughts.
I’ve become a little obsessed lately with helping people nourish themselves. With yoga and meditation and breath work, sure, but mostly with kindness and tenderness. Where can you be kinder and more tender with yourself? Start there.
Conscious breathing is a powerful tool. Please use it. My gift to you today is an audio meditation that is also a breath practice. You can download it from Dropbox HERE. I invite you to practice this daily and notice how your awareness blossoms.
May this breath practice nourish you and increase the volume of the kind and loving voice in your head. Give that voice more attention simply listening to it and believing it.
