Deep Breath

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++

I was nervous right before the first time I sang in front of people on a stage. My friend, who was in the same choir as me, said “take a deep breath.”

I’ve thought of the “take a deep breath” line as a less direct version of “calm down, now you’re making me nervous.”

But maybe it could mean something else. Because taking a breath is connected to being alive, and when we breathe, we are quite literally living. And breathing is happening in the present moment, which is why proper breathing is fundamental to any meditation practice. While we can think about the past, we can’t breathe about the past.

If we inhale, we ground ourself in the here-and-now. It makes it hard to shy away from what scares us. That diving board, or that open stage.. the moment passes when we hold our breath.

But if the air goes in and out, deeply and fully… anything is possible.