Aah, there you are again – welcome back!

Checking in with the breath

Accompanied by the kindly breath, free-flow words with these starting points: being as honest, rapid, uncensored, bold, and outrageous as you dare.

Right now I am breathing in with …

Right now I am breathing out …

Right now I am inspired by…

Yes, today’s focus is on the Kindly Breath.

My mum sent a postcard of the North Wales beach nearest to where she and my dad lived in 1980s. It was addressed to our one-year-old son. Her message read: “I will keep the sea coming in and out, in and out until you come again.”

In truth she didn’t possess power over the tides, nor over her own expiry in 1986. The ocean has outlived her, as it will all of us. And not yet.

But now, living within the sound of the sea’s roar for most of the year, I know exactly what she meant.

And I keep the sea going in and out, in and out until you come to share it with me, whether in a virtual sharing or – as is my aspiration – skin-to-skin at last.

I am developing an intuitive-touch healing practice, which is on hold at the moment. Also I am restraining my hugging urges, in these days of physical separation, except on paper or screens – as {hug}

Phew, let’s take a breather, with today’s

Brain Dump

Brain dump: complete the following phrases (remembering that the outcome is for your eyes only, so you can be as honest as you want, as weepy, as un-edited):

“Today I would love the freedom to touch …”

“Today I’d love freedom from feeling …”

“Today, my aspiration, my deepest hope is (to/for) …”

Repeat for as many times as you want, for as longas you can comfortably write.

Now put down the pencil or pen (which do you prefer?), and come back into your body, sitting, standing, or lying (I’m curious).

Come back to your hand (invigorated or tired or both, from pen-clutching) and let it unclench and relax.

Breathe into that Write Hand as it lies at rest, and into its mirror friend (left or maybe right), which may have been busy clutching your ThoughtBook. Let both hands rest, while you feed them with your kindful breath, with your steady, appreciative breath, and your kindly regard.

Now turn your attention to the breath iteself, as it comes in and goes out like the tides; as you breathe in the airy resources that you need; as you gather inspiration (from spiro, “I breathe” in Latin. And attend as you breath out: your energy, your offering to the world, your lettings go (including thoughts and behaviours that no longer serve you, that are reaching their expiry date… expiro = “I breathe out”… you get the idea.)

Breathing necessarily

‘Yoga for all ages’ by Rachel Carr, (1972) Collins, London and Glasgow

According to my 1970s yoga book, the Indian Upanishad scriptures relate the argument that raged between different parts of the Body – the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the mind, the generative seed – about which could claim the most indispensible Power for existence. They tested this by each Power being absent, one at a time, for a whole year, leaving the Body – by turns – blind, deaf, dumb, foolish, and barren. Finally they challenged the Breath to leave them, despite his warning that the Body would die.

Only at the last moment did the other parts realise that they could not survive without the Breath – “You are indeed the Supreme Ruler of us all” – and conceded the battle.

Many spiritual practices (there is spiro again) put the Breath centre stage: meditation practices including “mindfulness of the breath”; and the Christian celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, at Whitsuntide, in a couple of weeks’ time.

(You may know more examples, which you are welcome to add to the Comments box.)

And many well-being practices train us to breathe fully and deeply, using every part of our lungs and maintaining their healthy respiratory function.

Much of the time we may not even think of what the lungs are doing, steadily. Or of ourselves, isolating or screened, breathing in and out, in and out, until we can get together.

breathing a word in your ear

Just now we can take the letters of the word

breathing

= a b e g h i n r t

and find words that consist of some or all of these letters only. As in last week’s exercise, this isn’t a competition, merely a breathing space, an aid to relaxed and easeful resourcing. There is a help-list of some of the words at the end.

Then allow inspiration from any of these words, or from a prompt from below, take you on a journey of self-forgetfulness for a few minutes, as you follow one of these Golden Threads.

... out there, breathing with the others... 
... breathing with the Universe, I/she/he/ we... 
... after this passes, my deepest aspiration is... 
... the ribcage of the Hare on the Hill... 
... their laughter like bells, appealing ... 
...the effort of raking that garden made her perspire (from Latin for 'breathing through') ...

After you’ve written, we might well return to our hands, giving them some extra care, and to our kindly breath, particularly if the Golden Thread exercise has released some deep emotion.

Finally. I’d like to round off with our usual appreciation. Mine first:

Today I am grateful:

~ to Nicky and Adrian, egg producers extraordinaires, for the distanced conversation that prompted today’s theme. May your breath be easeful and open;

~ to Bramel, whose response to my poem ‘day-lengthening’ {two weeks ago) released his own poem – which you’ll find in the Comments to that page, and at the end of this one;

~ to Diana, whose recent Easter card carried words that are both affirmation and aspiration for me. Thank you for seeing me as a resilient oak, carrying acorns.

And now your own appreciations, which you are welcome to share publicly via the Comments, or privately by email to me.

Today I am grateful for:

~

~

~

Breathing poetry

in response to my poem ‘day-lengthening‘

and now there can be no holding back,

no pause, no hesitation,

but out here, out here, out here,

breathing steadily with the others.

here is what one of you wrote:

Breathing Steadily With The Others

Breathing, a spontaneous act,
You don’t think about, it just happens.
Everything around me breathes,
From what we see such as animals.
What we take for granted breathes,
Our world, the sky, the Earth.
In this time of reflection,
We should embrace the healing.
Our planet deserves our solace,
It requires our stillness.
I listen, I hear, and I feel,
My senses alive.
And what of our senses,
They are alive, just listen.
As the Earth speaks,
It breathes, expanding and healing.
Breathing Steadily
At one with the Universe.

© Bramel P. Sheratan 11 April 2020

Thank you, Bramel’

‘Breathing’ resource

These are just a few of the words from the letters of ‘breathing’:

agentangerbairnbargebegin
braineartheragaitergarb
gathergranitegreatgrinhabit
haterheartheatherbhire
interragerighttangiertribe