Finding Your Home in the Breath

Pause for a moment.  Notice your breath.
 
Are you shallow-breathing or holding your breath? 
 
Both are common when in front of a screen.  Both are common during times of fight, flight, or freeze. 
 
Our heart rate increases and breathing becomes restricted readying us for whatever action is needed to help us survive a threatening situation.  While being in front of a screen is a false threat (our survival is not at stake), it can trigger the same bodily responses.  
 
What we see, hear, and read on screens often keeps threats right in front of us keeping us in fear of what looms around every corner…and it’s certainly heightened this year! 
 
Interestingly enough, the breath is in the spotlight this year—the ability to breathe being threatened by COVID-19, breath being forcibly cut off by a police officer’s knee, fear of being unable to breathe when wearing facemasks, fear of others’ breath who are not wearing facemasks…
 
Survival breathing can become the norm when our days (and nights) are filled with hypervigilance (compulsively on the lookout for threats).  This “survival breathing” can lead to a host of issues from sleep problems to overly consuming food or information, from chronic anxiety to the inability to make wise decisions. 
 
Our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls need the fullness of the breath. 
 
Without breath, there is no life (literally and metaphorically).  Poet Mary Oliver speaks of the latter when she writes, “Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”  To live fully, creatively, and wisely, we need the breath.
 
Earlier this year, I taught “Meditating with the Aramaic Beatitudes.” In Jesus’ native language of Aramaic (which lends itself to various images & layers of meaning), one translation of the very first Beatitude found in Matthew 5:3 reads, “Ripe are those who find their home in the breath (the Spirit); they shall be attuned to the inner reign of God.” 
 
The word for “spirit,” rukha in Aramaic (like ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek), can also be translated as “breath.”  What does finding your home in the breath (which is also Spirit) offer you today?  How is breathing foundational to your ability to be present to God, yourself, and others?  What actions can you take to help others’ “find their home in the breath,” too?  After all, we are all connected by the same breath!     
 
Several years ago after teaching classes on “Breathing as a Spiritual Practice,” I created a short, 3-part video series with light-hearted exercises to give our diaphragms needed attention so that a slow, relaxed breath is more easily remembered and accessible to us.  Even in times of trouble. 
 
You can find those videos here.  I’m going to practice some with my facemask on to remind myself that the mask itself does not need to be a threat!  While I hope you’ll watch the videos, you do not have to in order to receive the gift of a full, slow, relaxed breath…it’s available to you right now (just like God’s presence)! 
 
So pause for a moment again. 
 
Whether privately without a facemask or publicly with a facemask, whether in front of a screen or not, let breathing be your prayer today.  Breathe deep the Breath of God.  

For a related article, see "What do the Coronavirus and the Reign of Love have in Common?: A Facebook Post from June 27th"