Am I the only one that feels sometimes like I am holding my breath hoping it all works out? It’s an amazing thing to breathe in and breathe out consciously. Even typing the word breathe I feel my little fingertips giggle, ‘Hey, she remembered…thank Goddess!’ I mean you could say God, or Buddha, or Big Bird but there is such a display of masculine Machismo everywhere I gleefully choose ‘Thank Goddess!’ But I digress. It happens, even in the new year with the season of resolutions and all that.

Does anyone else out there feel like they are sometimes forgetting to breathe? Or you are breathing but maybe only down to your throat and your belly is crying out, ‘what about me?’ Yes, the breath is not as flashy as a retreat in Mexico with your private suite on the ocean and gourmet organic food…but it is free. And it is your birthright to breathe. Right up until it is your death right to take your last breath. Yet, we rarely think about breath; the gift of life and the gateway to death.

I scrolled through my inbox today. It was less alarming than scrolling through the news but I did notice a trend. Everyone thinks I need to do something RIGHT NOW. By everyone, please don’t assume it is actually anyone I know as an in the flesh human. There are a few messages from those but mainly it is organizations asking for money or selling me something. Or asking me to do something. I get it…I really do, but what to do? That is a deeper question. Don’t think I’ll find the answer to that one in my email box or the news for that matter. Yet, I have been trained…to look outside first. Fortunately, training later in life came in to teach me to come home first. Thank you Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh for teaching me about the breath and inviting me back to be in the present moment.

Circling back home I find my breath. I find my breath and invite her to come all the way down to my belly. I invite you to do that right now. No one is looking, I am not charging any money and think of it as an experiment. Place an open palm on your belly and then breathe in through your nose and track your breath with all of your awareness down into your lower abdomen. Feel your open palm rise and deflate riding upon your belly. Repeat, until you have taken five belly breaths. For extra credit close your eyelids. Give those little eyeballs of yours a break for a second or two. They have likely been gobsmacked by all the stuff there is out there to see. Do you notice any difference?

Exhaling is as important as inhaling. You really can’t do one without the other. Exhaling right now is ‘letting go’. Letting go that there is some class in my in box that is going to make my New Year rock, letting go there is some non profit that if I don’t give money RIGHT NOW they are a ship that is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Letting go of fear of what my country may do later today, this month, or this year and even letting go of the enormous dread about the suffering that has already occurred and continues. Just continue to breathe my dear. Anxiety, fear, overwhelm are familiar friends to offer a smile and wink, not a foe to chase around your house with a broom yelling “Get OUT!”

When I tried writing this blog post, it had been so long since last writing that I was denied access to my own blog site. Imagine Sheepish me looking down at my feet kicking the ground. Then they said, ‘to be Re United with your site go to your email.’ Re United. That term made me laugh out loud. To be Re United with your true Self come home to your breath. Try smiling gently, even if there is no one ‘out there’ to see your smile. You see it. From the inside.

Growing my stability, my inner peas, my joy is not a selfish act. It is a requirement to showing up fresh for others. It helps me see with new eyes. It is like the inhale and exhale, the give and take. As I have written this blog post more emails are coming in telling me what I need to do RIGHT NOW. News is covering whatever is the worst of the worst and that will become the headlines of the day. I choose to UnSubscribe from distractions and come home to my Self today. Rather than continuously consuming what is out there and then being in perpetual reaction mode in here, what a gift to come home. Invite the heart to speak up for it knows what is most important from the inside rather than be told from countless messages out there what to make your top priority. Phew! What a relief that is!

WE are in upside down times, when bully tactics are said to be self defense, when some people that grow my food, take care of people’s children and work in every walk of life may feel threatened to come out of their homes. Coming back inside is not to forget the times that we are in or to pretend that I know how to get out of them…it is simply to come home to my heart. From this heart is where to set intentions for this year and beyond. When I forget it is simply a breath away to Re Member again.