I recently downloaded a bunch of music, and then I noticed a pattern. There seem to be a lot of songs about breathing. I’ve got “Breathe”, “Breathe In”, Keep Breathing” , “Breathe In Breathe Out” and “Breathe Me”
I must admit, I wondered what the Universe might be trying to tell me, or where my inner guidance is trying to draw my attention.
So I took a deep breath. Ahhhhhh. And I started thinking.
I remembered a few quotes from Tom Hanks films that talk about how to go on when life becomes painful.
From Castaway
“I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?”
From Sleepless in Seattle
“I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out..."
When people are stressed out, we tell them to take a deep breath. That simple act of focusing on our breathing centers us in the here and now. We ground ourselves in our physical reality and recall our minds from their wanderings into the future or past, uniting our minds and bodies to live fully in the now moment.
When we are in a state of resisting what the moment brings, we hold our breath. When shocked, we gasp. When we are amazed, it takes our breath away. When relieved, we exhale a sigh of relief. Our emotions are tied to our breathing.
Following our breathing is the doorway to meditation. We feed the cells of our bodies, relax into a natural rhythm and receive inspiration. The word “inspiration” comes from the same root as “respiration”. We are enlivened not only physically, but spiritually from breath of God and the whispers of angels and muses in our ears.
Breathing is our connection to the natural world around us. We take in the oxygen from the atmosphere…the exhalation of trees after they’ve converted the carbon dioxide we’ve expelled. The molecules of everything around us becomes part of us, moves through us, nourishes us, touches and changes us. Because of this exchange, it behooves us to take care of our environment, and those around us. We are connected by the air we share.
And most obvious – breath is life. If we are breathing, and we know it, we’re alive! Breathing is a full mind-body-spirit experience.
Of course, in the medical world, breathing is an important indicator of life and death. This points to another reason I may have found myself with several songs about breathing – I found most of them on the soundtracks of the TV medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy!
For more life lessons and meaning from pop culture and the world around us, visit Malayna Dawn on her website or her blog, Symbolic Themes. For a spiritual adventure, check out her novel Echoes Across Time.