Breath

 Starting early this year (2020) my Otherworldly people began to emphasize the importance of breath to me. They began by talking about the powerful symbolism of breathing and what it represented on a deeper cosmological level and then segued into the importance of conscious breathing practices and the spiritual benefits. This occured over several different experiences but I will include here a conversation I had with a fairy woman who often helps me.

Cairn S Sliabh na Caillí, 2016

The Conversation

My friend: "The most powerful act of any living being is breath. It is a cycle that represents life, death, and the Between. It contains within itself the greatest mystery."
Me: "The pattern of inhaling and exhaling is the mystery?"
Her, after making a thoughtful noise: "It is a cycle: breathing in, holding the breath within, breathing out, resting. Out is death. Resting is Between. In is life. Holding is the Between, neither life nor death. This is the cycle that every living thing trods - life, death, Between -  we die, we are Between, we live, we are Between, over and over and in the same way we breath out, we breath in, we hold the breath in a cycle that exists as long we we exist in life. It is the macrocosm hidden within the microcosm."
Me: "So when we breath we are connecting to this cycle."
Her: "Yes. And when we consciously engage with this we connect more fully to it. Everything that lives breathes but most do not ever spare a thought for the process they are participating in."
Me: "Okay. So then it would be good to consciously connect to this cycle, yes?"
Her, nodding emphatically: "Yes! Exactly. Take time every day to connect to this cycle. Breath in slowly, feeling the power of life. Hold it and feel the Between. Breath out slowly, feeling the power of death. Rest and feel the Between. In, hold, out, hold, feeling your connection to the great cycle, the mystery that is the three*"

~ I will note here that she did not place between as the Between of living and before death but the other way around, seeming to imply Between is the state after death before living again which occurs twice - when we first die before we are separated from our bodies and after death before birth. It seems like it would then be a four part cycle but she saw it as a three part cycle, with the Between occurring twice but only counting as one state of being ~

My Takeaway

Of course the idea of conscious breathing isn't novel. I share this for two reasons: because the way it was explained to me was nothing I'd heard before (and ties into some wider cosmology that was related to me) and because the underlying concept is very important. Having gotten the push from my friend I dug into the deeper ideas around intentional breathing and the benefits of the practice and found that the more I researched the more everything resonated with what I'd been told. This NPR interview is a good start if you are interested: "How the Lost Art of Breathing Can Impact Sleep and Resilience". Breathing is a foundational practice that when done consciously can have health benefits and spiritual benefits, and at least my particular Othercrowd seem to find it essentially important to engage in conscious breathing every day. 

The Method

The exact method I was taught is simple but effective: Breath in slowly to a count of five. Hold for five. Breath out for a count of five. Hold for five. Repeat. 
During the breathing let yourself relax and focus first on the physical action and then when that is flowing smoothly contemplate the deeper symbolism in anyway that seem appropriate, or other spiritual matters. 

*I'll expand on the three in another post