Are you holding your breath?
Or are you breathing deeply, taking each and every breath...
grateful for it?
Don't just answer...
THINK about it.
Am I holding MY breath?
Am I waiting to reach a certain position or title at work?
Am I waiting to have my children hit a certain milestone?
Am I waiting to be a certain weight?
Am I waiting for my relationship with my wife to be a certain type of happy?
Personally, I find myself holding my breath, way too often...
Holding it to reach some level of financial "success" or "level" that I defined at some point in my youth as being "when you've 'made' it".
My focus and my struggle daily, is not to live holding my breath -
but rather to breathe fully and deeply... so as not to miss these precious moments.
I am going to be 50 this year, and I HATE admitting that I have lived the majority of my life
holding my breath...
I am more present in my own life than I have ever been,
more grateful for it,
more deliberate in it...
And, I still have to remind myself to breathe.
When you hold your breath, you spend all of your time counting the seconds until you don't have to anymore... It is exhausting... You spend so much of your time wishing time would move faster... wanting to be there already...
I am a paradox...
Most people see me as breathing deeply, because I do, and I speak to it more than most.
But, it's with effort and consciousness...
I see those people who breathe deeply by default... they are the exception.
Most of us live in some combined state... perhaps breathing deeply in some aspects of our live while holding our breath in others...
Some people, I would argue, have compartmentalized their lives so much that they are dead in some aspects of their lives and wildly alive in others...
Think about it...
at work,
at home,
with your spouse,
with your children,
in the silence of your own mind...
Are you holding your breath?
And, if so...
remind yourself to EXHALE...
And, then do it again...
We are here, exactly where we are supposed to be... exactly where we deserve... and so very fortunate...
And, it's ok if we want to go further.
Heck... that is what keeps us alive.
But, let's exhale as we go...
teaching our souls to breathe deeply...
to be present
and
grateful
and present
for each
and every...
inhale...
exhale... (hold it)...
in harmony,
Nestor
P.S. That is the beauty of staying in motion... it's hard to hold your breath when you are pushing yourself... but, it's in the moments of silence, of pause, that you need to ask yourself the question... So many of us stay in motion, because it feels better... it keeps us breathing...