Life Happens – Breathe
by Leslie Sann
“We are always in the middle of life happening. It serves to calm down so we can meet what is with creativity and wonder.”
~ Leslie Sann
A client was telling me about a time when she was in India. There was a man with a large sign with the following words hand written in red ink:
Pain is mandatory but suffering is optional.
It kinda blew her away.
The sign was sorta a 2×4 hit upside the side of her head waking her up to the truth that life happens (upset/disturbance/sometimes pain) and what we do about it either leads to suffering or … blessings, as you would find in my book, Life Happens: What Are YOU Going to do About It?
Life does happen (Duh, Leslie!), and often it is upsetting or disturbing to our status quo. The first thing this body we drive around the planet in does is get upset or disturbed (duh again). Of COURSE it does. The body wants to live another day so it goes into fight or flight!
Problem is we FORGET to calm ourselves down once we get out of imminent danger or realize it was just the wind rustling the leaves of the tree. When we forget to calm, we suffer and the mind goes on a rampage worrying into the future or regretting into the past. Ugh.
Calming down is one of the most, if not the most important skill we can learn. From calm we have access to the well of our being which is filled with tools and resources for us to access to move us forward in the moment. We don’t have to figure anything out before we get to the moment … in that moment we can trust everything we need is available to us now.
The fastest way to access calm and come to peace is with the breath.
B r e a t h e into this moment right now.
How?
Inhale now exhale … on purpose.
Observe the breath.
Listen to the sound as the air moves in and out. Let the sound be a calming influence.
I n h a l e into your belly and let the breath expand up into your upper chest … release the breath …. and then i n h a l e yet again.
That’s it … feel the pleasure of your lungs expanding and contracting.
Let the pleasure and the sound relax you even more.
You got it.
Notice the quiet in between the sounds … let the quiet expand.
Ahhhh
Better – yes?
Calming down, coming present into now.
Life happens.
Now what?
B r e a t h e.
Blessings,
