One Apple A Day #1095
This morning, I tried a simple breathing exercise to calm the mind and gain clarity and focus.
You can try it anytime. Just find a comfortable position, close your eyes if possible, and then breathe following this sequence: inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and exhale for four seconds.
That's it. Do it for a few minutes to soothe your mind and relax your tensions.
However, I'm talking about this practice because I struggled with it this morning. In the beginning, I wasn't able to breathe in for four seconds. It was almost painful once I reached the count of three. I had no problem holding my breath or releasing it. But I couldn't inhale properly. My lungs and belly felt like there wasn't enough space to fit more air.
It took me a few rounds to realize that the real problem was not breathing in. I was breathing out.
As a kind of automatic self-preservation, I was only exhaling partially, holding some air in my belly. That means there was not enough room for new fresh air to come in. Once I shifted my focus on breathing out and gently forced my body to release all the stale air, the whole flow began to do its magic.
I wonder, how often am I doing the same with my life? Maybe, I'm not receiving enough because I'm not creating space in myself, in my mind and in life for fresh ideas and inspirations to come in.
It is pointless to seek more if we don't create the space to receive it.
That's why subtraction is a powerful practice.
Like the exhale movement, it creates the space to breathe in the new.