WILDLY FREE ELDER
The Artistry of Aging
DAY 29: WILDLY FREE BREATH
This morning in my writing practice I realized that I had left behind my passion for so many years. In fact, this day i decided was to be devoted to that passion. To rediscover and explore. To find joy again in the simple act of breathing in and out. To place attention and focus there.
The post below was taken from my Breathing Spaces blog and was published in 2016. Re-reading it this morning was a reminder to spend this day of my personal retreat accessing that primal body within that finds joy in simply breathing fully.
I invite you to join me in returning to your wild uninhibited breath….
The intelligence of the body – if you but tap into it for a moment in time – will bring to light all matter of holdings, contractions, numbed out and hidden places, that are crying out for attention, space and light.
Our instinctual body knows exactly how to breathe and move with optimal grace and fluidity – like the moon shining without telling it to. You, as a piece of the moving, breathing natural world – as the landscape you walk upon. Have you forgotten?
Can you feel the vibration of life force – prana – that is moving through you? If not then the opportunity is here to awaken and enliven the very cells of your being with breath.
If you are still long enough, in your solitude and silence, opening the senses wide – the inner and outer landscape comes alive with sounds, smells, sensation, vision, and perceptive entwined relating. This is your body in primal aliveness. A shifting art piece that is endlessly fascinating and continually changing.
As the ancient contractions release the body opens to a wild inhale of erotic desire – a desire so strong that we realize in an instant why we have shut it down. Permission to inhabit the yearnings of the body to be wild and free has not been granted for so many years….perhaps lifetimes.
These instinctual longings beg for life until Time stands still, bows down before you and prays for forgiveness. Forgiveness for capturing you in it’s sticky net of illusion. That you couldn’t simply embody moments by setting free the uninhibited breath – but instead were coerced to rush breathless into the moments that aren’t even here yet.
What a great loss it is to lose our wild primal aliveness. For it is here that we learn what it is like to be breathed. To lose all sense of control and certainty and deeply, erotically reconnect – like a lover with it’s beloved – to the Divine nature of simply inhaling and exhaling.
Becoming one with the breath that is breathing us all.
Our life force shimmers like a star in the heavens that even many years after it’s death remains brilliant with light.
Must we shut down on the vibrancy of our body that is housed in the soul of our very Being?
Were we really placed here to have our heads down and our eyes scanning a screen….or encased and belted into 3,000 pounds of metal and plastic, so disconnected from the earth that gives us breath…..and is breathing with and within us.
Or….are we here to delight in the simple and wild pleasure of breathing in….
and breathing out.
(http://breathingspaces.net/2016/02/20/wildly-free-breath/)
About 31 Days of Joy & Laughter Project:
As elders with a long life behind us and not as much embodied life before us, and as humans on the planet Earth at this time, we are being faced with incredible challenges that compete to take our attention.
A couple of days ago I realized I no longer choose to have my attention taken by the fear, doom and gloom broadcast daily, whether on our smart phones news feed or while talking to others. I am weary of it all and need a higher vibration energy bath!.
It is not that I don’t want to know what is happening in the world, but instead the question I am posing to myself, and to you, every day is – where do we want to place our attention? We most always have a choice.
For the month of December I am placing attention on joy, laughter, creativity and acts of kindness as a experiment to see what unfolds. Seeking out and being aware of moments of joy sometimes hidden in the deep pockets and lining of each and every day that seem to get passed over without even looking back. They are always there.
Each day in December you will find a small nugget of joy, humor, creativity or small act of kindness that found me and pulled my attention which will be posted here. I invite you to join me and share your experiences and what you noticed so that we may spread it around! (Please use the “Comment” section below).
If you don’t want to miss any of these posts simply sign up for the blog here:
http://wildlyfreeelder.com/blog/
You can also find all of the posts in the archives here: http://wildlyfreeelder.com/2021/12/
Gaye Abbott, Natural Passages Consulting, 12/29/21. Please feel free to share this post and link to WildlyFreeElder