31 Days of Learning to Breathe: Re-learning to Breathe

I couldn't bring myself to post yesterday. I have been fighting a cold for a week, and while it's probably 95% better, I've been coughing at night, which means I'm not really getting a very restful sleep. I decided it was more important to take care of me, then worry about trying to write a post when all I wanted to do was fall asleep. 

The other day I touched on "unlearning" how to breathe, which may certainly come across as "odd", but if we really think about it, makes a lot of sense. We often live daily with stress, anxiety, negative, toxic surroundings or people, and our "breathing" just isn't healthy. We're doing it all wrong. But it's become habit and we struggle to get out of it. We don't know what to do. The way we've done it, though negative, has become comfortable. You can all relate in some way...exercise, eating, etc...habits are hard to break, especially bad ones. I see it daily on FB, all the toxic talk and attitudes, bitterness, anger, etc...no wonder we are miserable. In order to bring about change, we need to un-learn some things. But then what? 

Well, once we unlearn something, we typically need to relearn it, whether it be a new way of doing it, or a new behavior all together. Throughout the next few weeks we'll talk about a variety of things that will ultimately lead us to learning how to breathe.

I know we've all had things in our life happen that have caught us off guard, that have taken our breath away, that weren't in the script. We're left confused, reeling, angry, hurt...all of which are okay to feel, but the longer we hold on to all of these things without learning how to breathe and live through them, the harder it becomes, and before we know it we are stuck, barely alive, even though we think we are. No, we are just breathing, we aren't really living. 

I know for myself, I sometimes think I'm doing great, and then BAM, something comes up that makes me go, "hmmm...guess I hadn't really fully let that go and learned how to breathe again". You know when you have a cut, and it scabs over, and sometimes the deeper the cut, the deeper and bigger the scab? Sometimes those scabs get ripped off before they're ready and oh man does it hurt, sometimes worse than the initial injury. And you catch your breath, and you might hold it, and you might even take short, gasping breaths, but you do know that you aren't breathing normal, you know the relaxed, peaceful state you've been in is no longer present. I feel like the more we practice breathing, the more we are intentional with doing it right, recognizing what should be, the sooner we will return to that state of normal, peaceful breathing when things shake us up.  

My heart hurts when I read posts of people who always seem to be in turmoil, who always seem to be on a roller coaster of emotions. I want to remind them who they are, how powerful they are, how incredibly loved they are by Papa and by others around them. I want to say, "take some deep breaths", "find some new friends", "choose a different way to live". But sometimes I can't. I haven't been given that access into their lives, so I just speak over their life that they would know just how amazing they are, and I say what I can.

Sometimes my own heart hurts, I want to vent, I'd love to say things, but I've learned that those things don't bring about the life I want, those things can be more detrimental, and so I just take a new breath, a deep breath and choose another path. 

I hope you'll keep joining me. I know that sometimes I ramble, and one of the things I'm looking forward to in this challenge is honing my writing. Being more intentional while still being "me". 


With Joy Unquenchable,