I invite you to become aware of the easy rise and fall of your breath as you breathe naturally and without necessarily changing the rhythm in any way. Notice if you find this practice calming and grounding, and if so, I invite you to catalogue this sensation and begin to view this practice of witnessing your own breath as a tool that you can utilize in any situation - not just during time set aside for mindfulness practices. Locating our own miraculous breath and following it with conscious attention is available...
I invite you to become aware of the easy rise and fall of your breath as you breathe naturally and without necessarily changing the rhythm in any way. Notice if you find this practice calming and grounding, and if so, I invite you to catalogue this sensation and begin to view this practice of witnessing your own breath as a tool that you can utilize in any situation - not just during time set aside for mindfulness practices. Locating our own miraculous breath and following it with conscious attention is available to us anytime we want - and we can make the choice to connect with it anytime throughout our day.
As I read this poem by the incredible Audre Lorde, I encourage you to experiment with following your own breath while also listening to the words. A two-pointed awareness that asks us to focus on multiple experiences at once while we practice attending to more than one stimuli, building patience with ourselves and with external information, and perhaps also moving in the direction of allowing these experiences to synthesize into one.
Audre Lorde
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference is the grossest form of reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. For difference must not be merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark….Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways to actively ‘be’ in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters.”
During this 'Great Pause', as it's been recently referred to, I invite you to find time to reflect:
to ask yourself what you're learning from this moment in your life.....
to read great authors and activists who have lived through tremendous hardship and cultivated extreme resilience against all odds.......
to connect with family, friends and colleagues and ask them what they are learning.......
and also to simultaneously follow your own breath as you read their words and hear their stories anew......
We must put the proverbial oxygen mask on ourselves before being able to serve others. How can we continue to move ideas together in a sustainable way that takes into account both the individual and the collective? Let us remember to listen to ourselves as we listen to one another........
Take Care...
This Take Care Card was created by Amy Miller. Copyright @Gina Gibney Dance, Inc. All rights reserved.
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