Breathe at the First Bridge
When you arrive at the bridge, walk around a little until you feel you are in a good spot. A 'good spot' is one that feels comfortable to you, where you feel safe, where you feel like you are welcome.
Ask the surrounding area permission to be present with it. If you feel the area is agreeing to your presence, allow yourself 10 seconds to simply 'be' with the area. If after those 10 seconds, you still feel welcome, proceed with the activity. This is what is feels like to have permission from a natural area to engage with it. We often think to ask other humans permission to be with them (though each of us knows what it feels like when this permission is not asked or granted), but do not often think to ask more-than-human nature whether we are welcome. If you do feel unwelcome, via strong wind, bothersome insects or an overall sense of just not being at ease, walk along the trail in either direction until you find the right place to be and repeat the process of asking permission and sitting with this permission.
And now: BREATHE. Take several long, deep breaths, feeling your lungs expand with the amazing air around you. Notice what other particles of life come into you. Are you inhaling the scents of the wet grasses, the crisp air, or the sunshine? Does the woodpile in the grass feel different than the wood beneath your feet? Just take note, as you breathe, of the things that come into your awareness. EXHALE and consider how the earth is now breathing YOU in, the same way we share our carbon dioxide with plant life, every exhale is your breath being shared with the earth. Consider this idea. How does it make you feel to realize you are also intimately connected to this breathing, sharing paradigm?
Now, HOLD YOUR BREATH. Hold your breath for as long as you possibly can. Consider what happens to you as you do. Are the positive, connected feelings you had previously in sharing breath changing now as you forcefully prevent that sharing? The longer you hold your breath, the more your natural attraction to breath vies for your attention and asks you to breathe! 'We don't exclusively own our natural attraction web string senses and sensitivities. Rather, they are a voice that we share with every species and mineral...Every five to seven years every molecule in our body becomes part of the environment and is replaced by a similar molecular from the environment. We become it; it becomes us." Michael Cohen
When you breathe again, how do you feel? What do you notice? Does the place you are standing or sitting look or feel any different after doing this activity?
Take notes on your experience. Consider two or three important concepts your learned. Consider what parts of yourself (past expectations, social constructs, the harsh critics of the mind) are being reeducated. Write one 'power sentence' to describe what you have gained from this experience or a poem to capture your process. Let your words and your senses really mingle together to bring the non-verbal experience into a verbal expression.
Before moving on, thank the area for being with you and participating in this activity with you.
Ask the surrounding area permission to be present with it. If you feel the area is agreeing to your presence, allow yourself 10 seconds to simply 'be' with the area. If after those 10 seconds, you still feel welcome, proceed with the activity. This is what is feels like to have permission from a natural area to engage with it. We often think to ask other humans permission to be with them (though each of us knows what it feels like when this permission is not asked or granted), but do not often think to ask more-than-human nature whether we are welcome. If you do feel unwelcome, via strong wind, bothersome insects or an overall sense of just not being at ease, walk along the trail in either direction until you find the right place to be and repeat the process of asking permission and sitting with this permission.
And now: BREATHE. Take several long, deep breaths, feeling your lungs expand with the amazing air around you. Notice what other particles of life come into you. Are you inhaling the scents of the wet grasses, the crisp air, or the sunshine? Does the woodpile in the grass feel different than the wood beneath your feet? Just take note, as you breathe, of the things that come into your awareness. EXHALE and consider how the earth is now breathing YOU in, the same way we share our carbon dioxide with plant life, every exhale is your breath being shared with the earth. Consider this idea. How does it make you feel to realize you are also intimately connected to this breathing, sharing paradigm?
Now, HOLD YOUR BREATH. Hold your breath for as long as you possibly can. Consider what happens to you as you do. Are the positive, connected feelings you had previously in sharing breath changing now as you forcefully prevent that sharing? The longer you hold your breath, the more your natural attraction to breath vies for your attention and asks you to breathe! 'We don't exclusively own our natural attraction web string senses and sensitivities. Rather, they are a voice that we share with every species and mineral...Every five to seven years every molecule in our body becomes part of the environment and is replaced by a similar molecular from the environment. We become it; it becomes us." Michael Cohen
When you breathe again, how do you feel? What do you notice? Does the place you are standing or sitting look or feel any different after doing this activity?
Take notes on your experience. Consider two or three important concepts your learned. Consider what parts of yourself (past expectations, social constructs, the harsh critics of the mind) are being reeducated. Write one 'power sentence' to describe what you have gained from this experience or a poem to capture your process. Let your words and your senses really mingle together to bring the non-verbal experience into a verbal expression.
Before moving on, thank the area for being with you and participating in this activity with you.
"What is the body made of? The ancient elements. The same minerals we find in clay, in sand and mud, the stuff of earth. We share limbs, arms, and trunks with the trees. The dendrites of nerve cells and the bronchiole of the lung are both named for their resemblance to the branches of trees that extend in finer and finer lines from the central trunk, the main axis. Can you sense that your own spine is like a tree trunk, a ladder connecting ground and sky, heaven and earth? . . . or perhaps we are vertical rivers, walking watersheds, all our tissues supported by elaborate systems of irrigation and drainage. We are made of water and are thirsty for more. Water flows over the surface of the skin, the earth, across the land, on top of the land, inside the land, across the body, inside the body. . . .
Fluid mysteries—water sings, and the body is the song."
–J. RUTH GENDLER, FROM NOTES ON THE NEED FOR BEAUTY
Fluid mysteries—water sings, and the body is the song."
–J. RUTH GENDLER, FROM NOTES ON THE NEED FOR BEAUTY
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