The Life You Want Breathes In First

You can only hold your breath for so long.

Everyone knows about breathing. We breathe in. We breathe out. Can’t breathe out first.

That’s the order. Breathe in. Breathe out.

It's funny how often we don’t apply that to our lives. We spend our lives before receiving. We breathe out first.

This applies to many things. What about money as an example, since we often spend money before having it.

When I was nineteen, newly married with a baby, I wanted a rug for our apartment. Then, as now, I loved designing how rooms look, and I knew that a blue-green rug would be the perfect base for everything else. Hey, it was the sixties!

So, I saved. I was going to college, had a child, and was working part-time jobs after school. Somehow, I saved enough to buy that rug.

My grandmother asked me how I managed to buy a new rug, and I said, “I saved for it.” She nodded and said, “You’ll be alright.”

And for the most part, I have been. But even though sometimes I don’t remember, I know that spending before we have it is like breathing out before we breathe in. You can only hold your breath for so long.

But spending what we don’t have is simply a symbol of what we do in our daily lives.

We are so busy, active, and preoccupied that we don’t take the time to sit down and think, listen, or even get enough sleep.

We give before we get.

Eventually, there is no more breath to give, and we wonder why we are ill in mind and body.

The air we breathe surrounds us. We don’t have to work at finding it. However, we must keep it clean—dirty air results from living without thinking or breathing out before breathing in.

What we need to breathe in is here, freely given. Breathing in, we automatically breathe out.

Most of us have to relearn how to breathe naturally and relax. In the same way, most of us have to learn to stop our lives and breathe in first.

We have to relearn to listen to the still small voice. Take in the sounds and feelings of nature. Stop. For hours. For days.

We don’t feel guilty for breathing in. But most of us feel guilty for stopping the rush of life. Stop doing too many things that are not ours to do.

The world will continue to turn if we take the time to first breathe life in. We will be much more effective when we breathe out with that fullness of understanding.

Our actions will benefit others.

We will be more like trees.

Trees breathe in and breathe out, and their breath benefits every living thing. Everything about a tree benefits every living thing.

They are the standing people, teaching us that every bit of who we are is for the benefit of everyone, but first, we must breathe in.

Otherwise, we are in survival and panic mode.

And we all know what that looks like. Stress. Greed. Fear. Misunderstanding. Me first.

Kindness disappears. Greed takes over. Good judgment vanishes.

None of us wants that.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in love, breathe in nature, breathe in stillness, breathe in beauty, and breathe in joy.

Breathe out and share that with everyone.

Be still and receive. First.

As you sit in stillness, perhaps in meditation, imagine this.

As you breathe in, imagine all the universe's goodness, abundance, joy, and love flowing towards you. Let it fill your being. Don’t worry about the breath out. It will take care of itself.

Keep imagining the universe flowing to you, even when busy with life.

And whether we understand the source or its fullness doesn’t matter.

We know it expresses an infinite, intelligent Love, and we are one with it.

Breathe it in. It will breathe itself out.

Think Differently Books