Tosia H Zraikat

Breathing Life

Why do people tell you to breathe deeply when you are stressed or need to gather your inner resources to face some challenging situation? 

Beyond the obvious reasons - to ensure the brain and heart receives enough oxygen to function well, to slow down the heart beat, calm the nervous system and to give you time to think - what is it about breathing that makes it so central to our emotional and spiritual wellbeing? Why do ancient Vedic and Buddhist teachings pay so much attention to it, and what makes it so incredibly powerful?

We breathe in the oxygen the body needs to function and breathe out carbon dioxide, as well as other chemical byproducts and waste. You might be surprised to know that this constant cycle of in-breaths and out-breaths is one of the body's most powerful methods of detoxification. 

Every breath helps to cleanse our bodies of toxins, waste and negative energies. If you doubt it, just pay attention to the smell of your breath when you are unhealthy or chronically stressed...that odour comes from all the toxins, wastes and decay being carried out with each exhalation.

But beyond that, the air you inhale is full of life energy, the universal life force or Nature's breath, so to speak. With every breath, you take in more of the Creative Life Force, Chi or Prana. And since every part of us, including our thoughts and emotions, is a manifestation of life energy, this inhaled life force (prana or chi) revitalises, nourishes and helps to heal not only our bodies but also our emotions and thoughts. 

 

This is important: Every time you consciously breathe with a mind cleared of negative thoughts and a calm open heart, you draw in more of the Supreme Consciousness - or Life Force, if you will - that will support and strengthen your own awakening, growth and Inner Light. Every single time.

You also gain greater control over your body.  By regulating your breathing, you help your muscles and tendons relax, become more pliant, move with greater ease and grace. Movements and actions that seem beyond your capabilities at other times become more possible when you breathe into them. Try doing this without slow, controlled breathing!!

And deep, mindful breathing also promotes self-awareness and self-knowing. Stop now and pay attention to your breath for a few minutes. Notice how the air enters your body, how your lungs drink it up, how the outbreath is pushed out without any effort on your part. You cannot help but become more aware of your body and its need for air. If you pay attention, you can also notice that your conscious breathing brings your mind into sharper focus, creates stillness, and centres you in the moment. 

Spend just 10 minutes twice a day paying complete attention to your breath and its effects on your body and mind, and you will become more centred, more grounded in your own being, and more able to stay calm in the face of external changes.  Soon, you will realise that you can control your breath to take more control over your thoughts, feelings and reactions to the external world.

Your breath is in many ways like Nature's breath, the winds and breezes: sometimes cleansing, sometimes rousing, exciting, or calming. It is Life.

Every day, spend a few minutes breathing deeply, grateful for constancy of your breath. Ask your breath what messages it has for you. Believe me, when you begin to listen, it speaks to you. For breath is the movement that is Life, and in its energy is the wisdom of the universe, always there for those who pay attention.

 

Artwork, Deep Breath by Melanie Weidner at listenforjoy.com

Photos by Nzkat Creative Movement

Lucid Dreaming

What dreams are made of, by John Aster Fitzgerald

 

A friend and I have been working together on our dreams these past two weeks, and are now moving into a new area, lucid dreaming.

“Even though the term "lucid" means clear, lucid dreaming is more than just having a clear dream. To have a lucid dream you must know that it’s a dream while you’re dreaming.” (Psychology today)

Looking up lucid dreaming in the internet, I was surprised to discover how many people want to lucid dream so that they can do things they can’t do in real life, as entertainment. But it can be much more than that. Lucid dreaming helps us to experience our dreaming consciousness, that is, to become really aware that our ego-consciousness is just one small part of the psyche.

It also helps us realise that our consciousness is highly creative and imaginative, and can be used in many more ways than we usually normally use it. If we use it in positive, unselfish ways, lucid dreaming is another avenue for spiritual growth and development.

In some ways, lucid dreaming can resemble out of body travel and remote viewing, for if we learn how to use it well, it allows us to ‘travel’ not only to different places and times, but (under certain conditions) possibly into different dimensions of being, or at least of our consciousness. Anyone might be able to get into the lower levels of being, I suspect, but even the most talented lucid dreamer, cannot safely go into dimensions requiring higher vibrations without having raised his or her vibrations through prayer, meditation, or some kind of spiritual purification.

To me, lucid dreaming is best used as a psychic tool to aid our spiritual growth, and that is my approach.

I used to lucid dream a lot in my youth, and when my children were small, but rarely do it now. Or forget if I do. So to start my lucid dreaming training, I will begin by telling myself before I sleep, when I say my dream-incubation mantra, that I will become conscious in my dream that I am dreaming. I will awake within the dream.

I think also think it helps to set a task, like the task that astral traveller Jurgen Ziewe uses to make sure that he is not dreaming but is awake out of body. He looks closely at his feet. If he can clearly see them, he knows that he is awake, and goes on his travels. If he does not, he tells himself to Be Real (or something similar), which usually works. (I highly recommend Ziewe's 'Multidimensional Man'). Though Jurgen Ziewe is not lucid dreaming, I think that that simple task might be a good way to ascertain that we are awake in the dream, and not wishful thinking.

If that sounds reasonable you, when you realise in a dream that you are dreaming (are lucid), take a good look at your feet. Now because you are dreaming, you might try to change your feet in the dream. Change the sandals or whatever.

Transforming with Love

I was in my own back yard peacefully watching wild birds weaving and darting at scraps on the ground. And suddenly I was overcome with intense love that beat over me, wave upon wave. I felt utterly helpless before it.

And it came to me: 'That's what it takes!' We must fall in love with nature, love her with all our hearts, love every part of her with every fibre of our being. Only then will we care for our Earth and all living things, as we are meant to, and protect them.

No moralising, no intellectual judgements, no science, no political policy will ever be enough. We need to love nature with an unrelenting desire for the wellbeing and contentment of every part of her and all that lives on her, yes, even the creatures we might eventually eat. Instead of judging, blaming, trying to change people's minds, nurture love, and through our own deep passion for nature, we can inspire others to love her and all living things and really want to live at peace with them.

 

Photos: Burleigh mountain; Magpie in my garden, by Entoni Wright.