Cherishing the Breath: A Guided Practice

Video Transcript

So I’m going to guide you in a little breathing practice. I’m going to ask you to just take one deep breath and just close your eyes. Let yourself close your eyes and connect to your inner life, without having to look at anything right now. Just connect with yourself. You can put your hands over your heart, right over your chest. I like to put both hands on my chest just to feel the place where the breath connects to the heartbeat.

And we’re going to breathe together for about a minute. And as you’re breathing, I want to invite you to notice on this inhale, the next inhale, notice that your breath breathes itself, this miraculous gift of your breath breathes itself and breathes you into life 1,000 times an hour, without your effort. When you breathe in, you breathe in all of the nourishment for your body, for yourselves. Your breath oxygenates your whole being. And when you exhale, you connect yourself by breathing out what you don’t need. And you breathe in with all beings in the world, all plants, all trees, the earth, pulsing oxygen into your body as a source of life, as the gift of life. Your breath connects you to all people in this practice right now, as you breathe and to all people around the world.

This is the gift not to take for granted, the anchor of your being, the connection to life force. In your next inhale, give gratitude to your lungs, let yourself feel this gift of breath throughout your whole body right now. And it’s a beautiful practice that can root you in the awareness of taking nothing for granted. When you pay attention to the beauty and the gift of your breath, anytime this is available to you throughout the day, anytime it can be a source of calm and also a sense of joy.