In my yoga practice, one of the things we do at the start of each class is take in a big ol’ collective breath, make a dedication to ourselves or someone in our lives, and let out one big exhale to send it out into the universe. I don’t know what it does for the other students, but for me, it kind of helps me focus, find my “center” and let go of all the small things that followed me in the studio.
The yogis tell you how energizing and effective it is to breathe in the breath of the other students surrounding us, to channel that collective energy into our practice that day.
I randomly recalled this as my flight descended upon the Denver area on Friday night, and I took in a deep, excited inhale from my center seat in the second-to-last row of this Airbus Three-Twenty-Something. As I let out the exhale, I looked ahead at all of the people seated in the rows in front of me. I wondered how many had started their journey in Minneapolis as I had, how many had connected there having started somewhere else, and how many whose final destination wasn’t Denver.
Drawing on the lessons I learned in yoga, I took in one more deep breath, smiling as I tried to see if I could channel the collective energy of these 143 other individuals all on their own journeys to somewhere else.
We touched down and I exhaled.
Maybe it was the adrenaline from the flight, maybe it was my excitement to see my oldest and favoritest friend, or maybe the CorePower yogis were on to something, but the electricity that coursed through my veins was undeniable as we taxied to Gate E6, and the kick-off weekend to my Epic Summer began.
The funny thing is, when this moment ACTUALLY happened, I did all this, took in a deep breath, imagined it was the energizing collective breath of each of the passengers traveling with me, and then just about BURST into laughter when I realized this is how swine flu spreads. Good thing I have a strong immune system.
Ah, well. Hello, Denver. How I’d missed you.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Aww, you are welcome! And actually? It might not be a re-read because nota lot of folks were reading me back then because I was still bloggingelsewhere, ha. So, thank YOU for being so awesome. And KEEP BREATHING!That's a reminder that never gets old.
This would be the first time I'm reading this post, though it's probably a reread for many of your other twitter friends, since I've only known you a matter of weeks now, but I just wanted to tell you that it couldn't have been a better time for me to read it (run-on sentence of the year). I have had A DAY, let me tell you. And, although I'm no yogi (not even close), the reminder to BREATHE was a much-needed one for me today. Breathe out the tears, breathe in the love; breathe out the stress, breathe in the peace. Thank you Doniree.
Aww, you are welcome! And actually? It might not be a re-read because not
a lot of folks were reading me back then because I was still blogging
elsewhere, ha. So, thank YOU for being so awesome. And KEEP BREATHING!
That's a reminder that never gets old.
This would be the first time I'm reading this post, though it's probably a reread for many of your other twitter friends, since I've only known you a matter of weeks now, but I just wanted to tell you that it couldn't have been a better time for me to read it (run-on sentence of the year). I have had A DAY, let me tell you. And, although I'm no yogi (not even close), the reminder to BREATHE was a much-needed one for me today. Breathe out the tears, breathe in the love; breathe out the stress, breathe in the peace. Thank you Doniree.