The Cycle of Breath, and How it Unites Us All.
What you Breathe out I Breathe in.
Collectively, we all share the same air. All creatures who share the wonder of planet Earth are connected by the roughly 20,000 breaths we take every single day. Our life force, our prana, the constant exchange from the internal to the external. We are connected by our breath, yet we never stop to pounder this binding force that unites us all.
We are living in an ocean of air. Always taking in and offering out. So when you think about it, doesn’t it make sense that we are breathing in what others breathe out?
The process is both magical and powerful.
The Shared Breath Between Us.
Every inhale moves fresh oxygen through your lungs and into your blood, helping to clear out waste from your organs and other potential invasive bacteria. Carbon dioxide is a waste gas that works with oxygen in an essential respiratory exchange. As you breathe out, the carbon dioxide moves from your blood to the lungs releasing back out into the environment. Plants then absorb our waste and the cycle continues. Giving and taking naturally throughout our day, month, year, lifetime, and beyond.
This is obviously a very simplified version of the exchange and power, but it helps you to understand that your breath has been shared by many before you and will continue to be shared with those after your time in the sun has faded.
The same air on the planet right now is the same air that was here when dinosaurs ruled the land. The same air Joan of Arc breathed out Leonardo Da Vinci breathed in. The same air Beethovan breathed out is the same air Harriet Tubman breathed in. And so on and so forth from your great grandparents to your child and generations who have yet to walk this magnificent world.
Once you start to grasp this universal connection it’s hard to not look at a tree without feeling connected to it. Hard to not understand the unspoken connection between man and animal. It becomes hard to not view everything as an exchange in constant flow.
This flow is most apparent in the environment we live in. Your entire environment including…
- Where and who you live with
- Where and who you hang around
- Where and who you work with
- The trash on the side of the street
- The chemicals that float through the air
All of these things affect the flow of breath we give and receive. If you are living in a hostile or unhealthy environment your breath will have a much different flow than someone living in a safe and nurturing environment. The same goes for work and extends out into your community. If you live in a clean space with lots of fresh air and sunlight you will naturally breathe deeper than someone living under a layer of city smog. And the shallower our breath the more health issues arise.
Breath and Technologie
Living in a time where the world lay at our fingertips, we should feel more connected than ever. But I ask you…
- Do you feel that your relationships have deepened with the introduction of social media?
- Do you feel more connected to friends and family?
- Or do you feel like the world has become more shallow and labored?
According to the Huffington Post, 1 in every 4 women worldwide is on some kind of anti-depression or anti-anxiety medication. Last night, over 9 million people in the US took a sleeping aid to fall asleep.
Clearly, we are not feeling more connected, but are feeling more stressed. And as we just learned, what I breathe out you breathe in.
If breath is our life force, for which we cannot go more than three minutes without, and the energy behind is labored and shallow then what are we offering to our environment?
With depression being considered the number one national disability of US citizens, what energy are we tapped into as a society?
When we have the knowledge to breathe in the same air molecules shared by geniuses throughout time like Tesla and Ruth Bader Ginsburg why are we choosing to not absorb that deeply into our being? We choose instead to follow in step with the over-extended norm that has brought us to this place.
We’re disconnected from our environment. The amount of trash thrown onto the side of a highway and the growing homeless population we simply walk over is all a reflection of what we choose not to see: that we are all connected.
You are depressed, anxious, and sleep-deprived because you are not paying attention to our universal connection. A connection we have shared throughout time. Our breath.
As little as 3 to 5 minutes of mindful breathing every day is all you need to get started. 3 to 5 minutes away from the Internet, TV, or whatever your current vice is. 3 to 5 minutes of connecting within. 3 to 5 minutes of becoming a witness to the cycle of taking in and offering out.
Here’s a breakdown of my favorite practice, Box Breathing, used by the Navy Seals as a way to focus and calm before battle. I have developed my daily practice to be more mindful as I become infinitely aware of this flow we all exchange. I do this by adding in a mantra. It has helped me connect in deeper and more intimate ways than I knew was possible. I hope you find it as rewarding as I have.
BOX BREATHING with MANTRA
- Find a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed.
- Laying down or sitting in meditation
- If you are in a chair, move your back away from any support and plant your feet firmly on the floor.
2. Close your eyes and bring your focus to your breath.
3. Let your breath deepen as you focus on the tip of your nose. Noticing the exchange of cool air coming in on the inhale, and warmer air flowing out on the exhale.
4. Visualize a box in your mind and when your ready inhale for 4 seconds as one side of the box is drawn up.
5. Hold your breath at the top for 4 seconds as you visualize the second line of the box moving from right to left.
6. Exhale out the nose for 4 seconds as the 3rd line is drawn down.
7. Hold empty of breath for 4 seconds while connecting the lines of the box
8. Continue in this cycle of inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding for as long as feel comfortable. Just get used to the mechanics. Slow and deep from the belly every time. You will begin to notice shifts happening as you stretch from deep within.
9. Begin to add a mantra.
- As you work through the cycle you exchange the counting for mantra.
- On the inhale- I receive breath
- On the hold — I hold breath
- On the exhale — I offer breath
- On the empty pause — I am breath
- Continuing in this way adding in your own.
- I receive love, I hold love, I offer love, I am love.
- I receive compassion, I hold compassion, I offer compassion, I am compassion
- I receive forgiveness, I hold forgiveness, I offer forgiveness, I am forgiveness.
10. Do 5 to 10 rounds of this every day and see what begins to change in your life.
Amazing things start to shift in us when we are breathing deeply and consciously. You begin to see the world with new eyes. You will begin to associate with every other living organism as part of yourself. See every street corner as a reflection of the narrative that we are offering out and taking in. You will begin to show up in the world differently. Knowing you are connected to the great kings and queens that have left a legacy of knowledge behind not only in their masterworks but through the breath they have left behind.
