An Observation, A Recommendation, and A Poem

A woman reached out to me yesterday. She wanted to ask if I knew of a breathing exercise that she could bring into the hospital where she works. She noticed that her colleagues were stressed so she wanted something that could support them.

Her brief was simple: It needed to be super basic, short, and able to be done in a chair.

Luckily, the breath can be practiced (almost) anywhere and by anyone. So her request was easy to meet.

The only thing I had to consider was how busy these nurses’ minds would be as they sat down to practice. This would determine how supportive the exercise would be. My guess was that they would be pretty preoccupied with everything they had to juggle.

So it didn’t take me long to think of box breathing. It’s simple, short, and can be practiced in a chair. Each person must count in their head too which naturally calms the mind.

Below is the image I sent to the woman as a visual reference.

If you were to ask me for a similar recommendation this week, I would first ask you what your current state of mind is.

If your mind is fast, box breathing could be a great option for you.

If your mind is sluggish, breath of fire might work better.

If your mind is calm, you might want to practice breath awareness.

That’s because the breath never lies.

If we’re angry, the breath is fast.

If we’re relaxed, the breath is slow.

This means that we can listen to the breath to understand what’s going on inside. Then we can use it to either slow down or speed up depending on what we need from moment to moment.

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Now to one of my favourite poems about the breath.

The Anatomy of Peace by John Roedel

my brain and heart divorced

a decade ago

over who was to blame about how big of a mess I have become

eventually, they couldn't be in the same room with each other

now my head and heart share custody of me

I stay with my brain during the week

and my heart gets me on weekends

they never speak to one another

- instead, they give me the same note to pass to each other every week

and their notes they send to one another always says the same thing:

"This is all your fault"

on Sundays my heart complains about how my head has let me down in the past

and on Wednesdays my head lists all of the times my heart has screwed things up for me in the future

they blame each other for the state of my life

there's been a lot of yelling - and crying

so,

lately, I've been spending a lot of time with my gut

who serves as my unofficial therapist

most nights, I sneak out of the window in my ribcage

and slide down my spine and collapse on my gut's plush leather chair that's always open for me

~ and I just sit sit sit sit until the sun comes up

last evening, my gut asked me if I was having a hard time being caught between my heart and my head

I nodded

I said I didn't know if I could live with either of them anymore

"my heart is always sad about something that happened yesterday while my head is always worried about something that may happen tomorrow," I lamented

my gut squeezed my hand

"I just can't live with my mistakes of the past or my anxiety about the future," I sighed

my gut smiled and said:

"in that case, you should go stay with your lungs for a while,"

I was confused - the look on my face gave it away

"if you are exhausted about your heart's obsession with the fixed past and your mind's focus on the uncertain future

your lungs are the perfect place for you

there is no yesterday in your lungs there is no tomorrow there either

there is only now there is only inhale there is only exhale there is only this moment

there is only breath

and in that breath you can rest while your heart and head work their relationship out."

this morning, while my brain was busy reading tea leaves

and while my heart was staring at old photographs

I packed a little bag and walked to the door of my lungs

before I could even knock she opened the door with a smile and as a gust of air embraced me she said

"what took you so long?"

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Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)