On Breathing: Choice and Freedom in the Moment
We take breathing for granted, inhaling and exhaling to live, speak, move, think...Yet breathing can be an inherent tool for creating freedom in every moment. It's within our realm of possibility, even though we often forget to make use of it. Read on for a breakdown of how your breathing can help you, and strategic tips to bring it into your awareness, now, so you can carry it with you throughout the rest of today.
Why Breathing Matters
How you breathe is reflecting your current state of being, including your emotions, thoughts, physical reactions, external demands and much more. If you want to change how you're feeling, you can use your breathing to reflect how you want to feel, thus changing it.
Breathing also matters because it greatly affects the quality of our being. If you want to run quickly, speak articulately, project confidence and poise, or play an instrument beautifully, you can only do those things as well as you can breathe. Breathing is fundamental.
Breathing well is a gift you can constantly give to yourself and others. When you breathe well, it offers you coordination, coherence and inner calm. Breathing fully and completely offers others a sense of calm and time to interact meaningfully--isn't it amazing that your own breathing can offer that to someone else?
The Biggest Thing to Watch Out For
In noticing your breathing, you may already be trying to fix it. You may have noticed that your breathing isn't as full as it could be, or that you feel stuck somewhere. Trying to take a bigger breath is only going to add an extra layer of tension - so don't!
Instead, keep noticing whatever you're noticing, and invite your awareness to expand even more. Check in with your neck muscles, your head, which is poised on top of the neck (indeed, the whole spine), and your whole back. Don't try to change anything; just notice. Also notice your ribs, which attach into the spine, and your legs--is there a heaviness or extra tension in your legs?
More specifically, start to notice the rhythm of your breath: what happens as the air comes in? Do you suck the air in, or tense somewhere to pull the air in more quickly? And what happens as the air goes out? Do you collapse throughout your spine, or start to squeeze the air out near the end of the breath? Are your ribs stuck in place throughout the whole breathing cycle?
Then: Choose
Now that you're more fully aware of what you may be inadvertently doing to breathe, give yourself the luxury of choice in each breath. In this breath, invite your body to take the air in for you: no need to help, your diaphragm, ribs and other anatomy of breathing have it covered. Give your ribs the freedom to move freely to take the air in and out. As the air goes out, allow yourself to continue to claim the whole expanse of space that is yours: don't collapse or narrow to push the air out!
My invitation
My invitation to you: as you continue throughout your day, can you occasionally notice how your breath is affecting you? If something stressful or startling happens, can you notice what your physical reaction is, and what happens to your breathing?
A Reminder
I created this little note from me to you, to remind you of all the freedom you possess inside. With each breath, you can be fully expansive, light and free. The best part? Wherever you go, it can come along with you: the choice is yours, so choose freedom.
“In every moment, there is choice.
In every breath, there is freedom.
Choose freedom. ”
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