Use your breath to direct attention into the center of whatever feeling is arising. Send awareness inside your emotions and saturate them with light. Surround whatever appears with your presence, as a parent would cradle their shivering little one with a warm blanket. You are the parent to the orphans of your somatic world as they attempt to emerge out of the shadow. These are love’s children making a journey of sacred return. Though their voices can be disturbing and intense, they come not to harm … but to know themselves, and be known to you. As you practice intimacy and learn to know your body, you will naturally attune to the breath as it passes in and out of your lungs. Take a moment to behold the miracle this truly is, to be given even one more breath on this new day. The implications of this alone are enough to take you to the ground and cut through the trance, the thoughts and beliefs that something could possibly be missing. As holy as the breath is, there is yet another substance passing through you. It is flowing in and out of the center of your heart, is subtle, and is apprehended only through one of your nonordinary senses. It is untamable, uncontrollable, creative, and keeps the stars from falling out of the sky. It is the substance of pure love.
Oxygenate your entire being with this sacred material, and allow it to wash through you and nourish you. Breathe it into your cells and allow it to recycle in the four directions. Be a vessel through which this substance can pour into a world that has forgotten. Do whatever you can to help others, and never forget that even one moment of empathic, attuned presence can change someone’s life forever. Listen to others. Really, listen to them. Slow way way down and look into their eyes. Hold them. Share your calm, regulated nervous system with them. Dare to allow them to matter. Care for them and how they are making meaning of their experience. Each person you meet is an erupting miracle of presence.
Breathe.
