Breath is Life

AA said:Nun sause ich ins Büro. Nicht ohne deine Montagmorgenmail gelesen zu haben (wie jede Woche). Und ich achte immer auf tiefes, gutes Atmen!

Breath is Life 

Breath is no longer a routine inhalation of air but a quivering intake of life.

    Stephen Bachelor: Buddhism Without Beliefs

How “well” we breathe is crucial for our quality of life. In situations of stress or anguish our breath gets shallow. Some people’s breath never reaches their diaphragm. That has a significant impact on their health: the body remains in a cyclical state of stress, where stress causes shallow breathing and shallow breathing causes stress. Such chronic stress results in lower amounts of a type of white blood cell that helps to defend the body from invading organisms, and lowers the amounts of proteins that signal other immune cells. The body is then susceptible to contracting acute illnesses, aggravating pre-existing medical conditions, and prolonging healing times.

Diaphragmatic breathing, or “belly breathing,” can be trained. Here you can find some simple instructions. I really enjoy practicing relaxed breathing all the way down in my abdomen. In such moments breathing really feels like Bachelor puts it: as a quivering intake of life. It is nothing less than a miracle how we keep alive by taking in and letting out the air around us...

Sadness and Happiness

AA said: Bonjour! Very true 💕

Sadness and Happiness

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

                                                                 C. G. Jung

During our lives many things happen that make us sad, and with the years we learn to deal with loss, deception, and grief. There are also days when we wake up sad without knowing why.

We don’t want to be sad, so we try different strategies to flee from sadness. Constant searching for entertainment, eating or drinking too much - you name it. Very often these strategies make us feel even more miserable. Instead, we should welcome sadness when it arrives. 

Take the time to sit with that uneasiness and feel it all the way, in your whole body and mind. Let sadness wake you up to the complexity and fullness of life. When you touch your own sadness and pain, you naturally feel empathy for the sadness and pain of others. Fully felt sadness makes us grow.

And as sure as after rain there will be sunshine, after sad days there will be happy days. 

Relationship – The Undertaking

AA wrote: So timely!  We were trying to write a letter together regarding an insurance claim and we were butting heads!  Good reminder to listen:)

BB wrote: I think it's perfect! Thank you!!

Relationship – The Undertaking

Love is an emotion, but a relationship is an undertaking. The degree to which we feel loved in our relationships has to do precisely with how we behave, what we say, offer, recognize and respond to in another human being.

That’s because, although we don’t like to believe it, at the level of an interpersonal relationship love is contingent upon behaviour. Love, the emotion, just doesn’t stick around forever in the face of inattention or abuse on the part of the people involved.

Therefore, if you want your mate to feel the love you have in your heart, make it your business to listen, to discover what, at the level of her soul, she needs to hear, to see, to be shown and to receive; what, at the depth of his soul, he needs to be told, how he needs to touched, encouraged, cherished, and believed in.

Daphne Rose Kingma: A Garland of Love

No comments needed - I think this says it all.

A Leap in the Dark

AA said: Danke für Deine so schönen Gedanken.

BB said:Yes and Amen!  And look up, not always seeing the same view! Inspiring 

CC said: Detta talade verkligen direkt till mig i dag. Satt just och funderade över vad jag skulle hitta på för extra, när allt kändes så förutsägbart. Lite av tristess som man skulle kunna ”bota” med precis som du skrev, att göra en liten ändring i alla fall. Funderade också över varför det, i alla fall för mig, periodvis fungerar bra att allt bara flyter på och ibland känns stressande att det är så.

A Leap in the Dark

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.

                        Agnes de Mille

Most of us want to live a “safe” life. We want the same people to remain by our side, we want things to stay the way they have always been. If we have been okay at our workplace the last thirteen years, let’s keep on working there. For breakfast, we like to have the same cheese and tomato sandwich with a cup of coffee, year after year. No unforeseen changes, please!

Very often, however, life does not work that way. Suddenly there’s a crack: our loved one leaves us, we get a surprising job offer, or the family doctor bans our morning coffee. Life equals change, and we might as well get used to it. Change equals surprises and that’s the stunning thing about life. Isn’t it amazing that you have no clue about what’s up next? That there’s always something unforeseen coming up? I think so!

Life’s number one motto is Embracing Changes. Try to change one of your habits this week. Take a different route to your job. Have porridge for breakfast. Read a book you wouldn’t spontaneously pick up. Join a club for kite surfing. Expect the unexpected; take a leap in the dark! ;-)