Breathe, just breathe...

There are moments when to breathe in large amounts of oxygen (like you have never taken in breath into your lungs before), becomes a huge revelation of beauty and wonder. In the last few months I have had a kind of love affair with breathing. I know that sounds ridiculous. We all breathe. All the time. But that is the point... When are we aware of our breath?

Maybe we are momentarily aware of our breath: if we are meditating, or exercising, or singing our lungs off in the shower, or having sex, or when we hic up, or yawn, or when we are perhaps underwater for some reason? But really the fact that this automatic response - breathing air in and out - can also be consciously controlled, is quite something dont you think? Breathing is a part of the autonomic nervous system. Respiratory function happens with out our needing to think about it. Even if we were to hold our breath long enough to pass out, once unconscious we would automatically do what? ...Breathe... Our brain, and our bodies want air. Maybe more than any other thing on the planet: not money, not oil, not sex, drugs, or security, not love, not joy, not power, just air. Give me air...

In the last few months there are instances where I have felt shock, or been surprised at something, frightened even, where I have taken in air quickly, "to catch one's breath". I have felt instances of huge relief, like when an immense burden has been lifted off, and you slow your exhalation purposefully to feel the relaxation flow over you, settling in, deepening. Ive had instances of needing air so desperately, Im gasping for it. Where the breath has become to slow or shallow, and the build up of carbon dioxide is too great in the bloodstream that you find yourself taking in air in large gulps. We all probably have had these experiences in the last few months, but did you think about them when they happened? Were you really aware of your breath?

Take a big breath now. Do it. Doesnt it feel good? Did you know that your left lung is smaller than your right? Do you know why? Your heart lives on the left side of your body where your lungs live. There's only so much space. And I have just quit smoking, again... But I have done so partly because of this recent love affair with breathing. With this new awareness of the wonder of such a simple, involuntary act. We breathe hundreds of times a day... To breathe is to be alive. Because we know that without it, we would expire, and not breathe in again... Maybe that one breath you just took consciously, will change your life too? Maybe it was just another breath that went by...unnoticed.