Breathing

Toe breathing

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Toe breathing? Yup, your toes breath if you concentrate on them. Ready to try?

Okay. Take a pause. Relax your shoulders, eyes, and jaw. Feel the ground on your feet and wiggle your toes, so you know they are there. Take a deep breath through your nose and feel the air enter your body. Imagine the same fresh air coming your lungs, tummy, legs, feet and finally your toes. Feel the body expanding. It’s like blowing up a balloon. Imagine the clean oxygenated air reaching the very tips of your toes and that everything it touches on the way down is cleansed.

Now exhale slowly. As you exhale, imagine your body deflating slowing and breathing out the stale air. All of the aches, pains, anxiety leave the body with that exhalation.

Is like rinse and repeat. Try it 3 times. Concentrating on the toes will make you breath deeper and slow down the exercise. Remember to the breath through your nose and relax the shoulders and face.

Stay grounded today and enjoy.

The experience of right now

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We only experience right now as Emily Dickinson explains below:

Forever — is composed of Nows
by Emily Dickinson

Forever — is composed of Nows —
‘Tis not a different time —
Except for Infiniteness —
And Latitude of Home —

From this — experienced Here —
Remove the Dates — to These —
Let Months dissolve in further Months —
And Years — exhale in Years —

Without Debate — or Pause —
Or Celebrated Days —
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Domini’s —

Fill the vessel 

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Here’s a tip on breathing.

Try this the next time you take a couple of deep breaths to relax or wind down from exercising.

As you exhale, imagine you are filling a vessel. Inhale deeply into your diaphragm and then slowly exhale. Relax your jaw and shoulders. Feel the floor holding you up. Wriggle your toes. Relax.

The room. The first exhale fills the room. Imagine your breath as a white mist filling every nook and cranny of the room

The house. The second exhale fills all the rooms of the house. Bedroom, bathroom and kitchen touched and infused by the mist.

The neighborhood. The third exhale fills the neighborhood. Down alleys and into back gardens.

The city. The fourth exhale fills the city. Imagine it happening on a map. Imagine the mist swirling through the city streets, between buildings and under cars.

The exercise will slow down your breathing and it’ll turn the practice into something more than exhaling carbon dioxide.

Be Real

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It isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you.

Being Real hurts sometimes, but when you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.

It takes a long time, and you got to be tough and persevere.

When you are real, you are beautiful.

* * *

It’s said best in The Velveteen Rabbit:

“Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’
‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Change the Universe

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The mystic and poet William Blake asks us to see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of our hand and eternity in an hour.

The entire universe is inside all of us. The entire universe changes when we change. Everything in existence feels the ripple of our development because we are all part of the whole. That’s a radical and powerful realization.

In today’s world, we get up every day and have interactions where there are opportunities to grow. Interactions with our kids, spouse, friends, work colleagues, pets, cars, nature – EVERY moment is an opportunity to grow and change the universe. Wow.

William Blake and Gandhi were onto the same thing. Gandhi said ’Be the change you want to see in the world’. Here’s my spin on that quote – Be the change you want to see in the Universe.

Now get out there and change the Universe.

The space between the notes

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Music is the space between the notes. From Mozart to Adele, it comes down to the pauses and inhalations, which allows the music to flourish.

Breaks and a breath in life are the same thing. Whether it’s first thing in the morning or before a meeting. Stop, pause and breathe – then ACT. Let your music play.

Secure Insecurity 

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“Life is like a long and powerful river. From time to time, there will be some rapids. All you can do is ride it out. Resist or try to get back upstream, and you might drown. Stay calm and ride the waves, and the river will carry you to a safer place.”

Alan Watts,  The Wisdom of Insecurity

It’s going to be okay

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Relax your shoulders, wiggle your jaw, feel the muscles behind your eyes relax. Take a deep breath and feel the love and support that surrounds you. How do you feel now?

If you need help, then help someone else. If you need support then support someone else. If you need love then love someone else. If you need to receive then give.