High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘breathing’

The sound is brilliant.  It comes from every direction.  The calls of dozens of species of birds —geese, ducks, robins, blackbirds, cardinals, sparrows, jays—and the songs of hundreds of frogs blend and rise and fall.

I stand as still as the waters, breathing the song into every cell of my body until all sense of self dissolves and I am one with the ten thousand life forms that surround me.

I am one with the fishes and reeds and trees, with the beavers, rabbits, raccoons and deer, with the tadpoles and the flying insects and the crawling ones, with the worms and snails and the blades of grass.  And together we are all breathing this song, or it is breathing us.

And each of us is looking out through a different set of eyes, and together we are seeing the ten thousand layers of true.

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The air, so sharp with cold, shatters my preconceptions.  I forget the names of things.  Everything is new.

A cloud of wind-born crystals shimmers past, brushing my skin.  I am incredibly awake and everything around me is vividly alive: the rushing waters of the creek and the rocks beneath it, the needles on the pines, the bark on the trees, the snow, the ground, the weeds.

I feel the breathing.  I hear the conversations: everything talking to everything, everything laughing with joy.  And the cells of my being join in and everything is a part of me and we are one great dance, merrily waltzing our way through eternity, ever changing, and simply brimming with joy.

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Withdrawing from the busy world, he claims twenty minutes as his own.   He settles himself comfortably into his chair, closes his eyes and inhales a full volume of air.

As he exhales in a long, luxurious sigh, he feels all the tension leave his body.  Again he breathes in deeply.  Again, he exhales and feels every muscle in his body softening, as if he were weightless and floating on air.

After the third deep, relaxing breath, he lets his breathing find its own rhythm, watching it flow of its own accord.

He feels his body expand with every in-breath as the cool, fresh air enters him.  “Wellness,” he whispers silently to himself, imagining he is breathing in a divine elixir that brings his mind and body perfect health.

As he watches his breath flow from him, he silently whispers, “Peace.” It is his offering to the world and he gives it with sincerity and love.

His mind grows as still as a woodland creek on a windless August afternoon.  “Wellness,” he breathes; “Peace.”  Thoughts come and go, like leaves floating on water.  The mind will do what the mind will do.  He notices them, but their sound is muffled and seems to come from far away.

Sometimes one will capture his interest and he’ll ride with it for awhile, captivated by its intricate designs.  But then he will notice that he’s thinking, and gently let the thought go as he returns his attention to his breathing.  “Wellness,” he breathes; “Peace.”

He doesn’t think about it, but he’s aware that he has entered another dimension of consciousness, a kind of quiet communion with the transcendent intelligence within and behind the manifest world.   It’s nothing he could describe in words, but it feels wholly loving, wholly powerful, both intimate and immense.  The peace of it is dynamic; its silence is the music of the spheres.  He has no desire to understand or define it.  He simply sinks into it and allows it to fill his being.

After twenty or so minutes have passed, his phone’s alarm softly vibrates.  He takes a long, deep breath and begins to count slowly from one to five.  “Returning now,” he tells himself as his count reaches three.  “Feeling good, feeling great, feeling better than before.”

At the count of five, he opens his eyes.  The room is clear and bright and has an aura of beauty about it.  He stands, feeling awake, refreshed and at ease.

As he returns to his day, his stride has a renewed lift to it; his face wears a slight glow and an easy, peaceful smile.  He’s centered, integrated, confident and ready.  All in exchange for 20 minutes apart.

Did you know that by adjusting how you breathe you can increase your level of happiness?  Take a slow, deep breath right now, and let it out in a long, even sigh.  Right away, your whole body relaxes, your mind opens, and you sense a moment in which you’re free to choose—to relax further, or to return to whatever level you were at before the sigh.

It’s really pretty amazing, when you think about it, that something as simple as a sigh can alter your whole state of mind.  But awareness of your breathing can do much more than provide a momentary sense of release.  It can teach you about the intimate ways your body and your feelings interrelate and provide you with keys to guiding yourself toward enhanced well-being.

This one process of ours, our breathing, connects mind, body and emotions as nothing else does.  Its quality—its depth and ease and rhythm—is a wondrous mirror of how we’re feeling.  And by paying attention to how we’re breathing while we’re in different moods, we can gain great insight into where and how we hold different feelings in our body and learn how to consciously manage our breathing to ease the stresses and blocks that keep us from feeling at ease and free.

Make a little mental note right now to see how you’re breathing the next time you feel really happy.  See how fully you’re using your lungs, allowing air to flow into their depths.  Then try that breathing for several minutes when your mood is a little low.

For most of us, gentle inhalations to a slow count of ten with exhalations a little longer for several cycles will bring a wonderful sense of relaxed happiness.  It relaxes muscular tension and provides fresh oxygen to open your mind to new options and possibilities that you couldn’t see while you were locked into a tighter perception.

Add conscious breathing to your happiness practice.  Play with it and discover for yourself that increased happiness is only a few breaths away.