Coworkers would guffaw when I shared with them that I forget to breathe all the time. Probably they got a vision of turkeys drowning in the rain, too dumb to look down instead of up. How can you forget to breathe, nimrod?
Well, I stand by my (figurative) statement. Breathing is a practice, and done well it makes me feel Ah-May-Zing. It's shocking, actually, the contrast between when I "forget" and when I once again find my breath.
My children practiced breathing in their school (man I loved their old school). My daughter taught me the school's method of finger breathing and I love it. She put her hand up and took the pointer finger from her other hand, following the outline of each finger on the open hand with inhalation while tracing slowly up, and exhalation tracing down, fives times (once for thumb and each finger). It's perfect. She loves helping her little brother with this, too.
I used to walk them through circle breath where I'd trace a big circle in the air, inhaling as my hand swept up and around, and exhaling as I traced down the other side. Ujjayi breath. To help them relax before falling asleep at night. Now I will call them to me when I can see (or hear) they need a little reset, and we'll do finger breathing together. It's magic (it works) and they like doing it with me.
How amazing it is that breath can be so transformative?! My head gets clearer. My pulse slows. I can feel gratitude instead of blatant stress. Calm people are excellent breathers. They pause and breathe in slowly before they respond to a question or situation. My goal is to be one of them. Breathing helps me to check in, to slow down, to find intention.
I just have to stop forgetting (turkey).
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