The Spirit of Breath by Gaylene Aitken

I received a message from a friend saying she hoped we had an ‘on switch’ hiding in the discarded things that haven’t quite worked out. I said we do, and it’s given me the inspiration to write to you about my thoughts and experiences with that switch.

The first movement we made, independent from our mother’s body, was to breathe. That first gasping inhalation drew in oxygen and with it our soul. We breathe and we live.

We can’t live without oxygen, so our entire body is designed around our breath. We inhale and our body expands, we exhale and our body flexes. That means everything about us moves in this way, our skeleton, organs, muscles, mind and spirit, a rhythmic harmony of parts generating life force. The equal and opposing forces of the movement of our breath is the primal motion of existence found throughout the universe.

I understand our conscious mind developed alongside our movements. At a very young age we created patterns of movement that over time became set and fixed, reflecting the belief systems and concept patterns of our mind.

We unconsciously limit our potential when we place restrictions on what we believe we’re capable of. This reduction of mind becomes a reduction in range of motion on all levels.

The flowing movement of our breath gets caught and held so there may be vast amounts of our body that we can no longer feel or move freely.

These fixed unused parts of our self are like the discarded broken projects and ideas that started out so well but never quite worked out. They’re still hanging around, shoved out of sight in the basement, but sometimes they call out to us, reminding us of some undefined lack in our life.

One way to reactivate the rhythmic pulse of life force is to quietly focus on different parts of your body, just sensing what you feel. Sometimes there’s parts that you can’t feel and those are the parts that lack breath. Resist the impulse to force awareness, instead you could go to where you do feel the pulse. Become familiar with the feeling of movement, then go back to where you felt the lack and this time maybe you can feel a faint movement you recognise from your previous exploration in the moving part. Awareness will create a response in our nervous system and if we persist, bit by bit life returns, vital nutrient rich blood flowing to hungry cells, wastes removed and sensory awareness and feeling restored.

Observing the rhythm of our breath in this unobtrusive gentle manner we learn the feeling or language of our nervous system’s response to life’s ever changing situations and how we can regulate the fast, hard panting of fear to the slow calm wavelike motion of contentment and safety. These two equal, opposing forces when balanced keep us safe, nourished and resilient.

I feel breath is our essential life force, connecting us to all that we are. Motivating, regulating and inspiring us to fulfill our potential as a compassionate human and aware spirit being. Spread love and stay real.