Life: The In Breath and the Out Breath

Life: The In Breath and Out Breath
by Nancy Leilah Ward

As we go through our lives we are not often aware of breathing - the basic bodily function that is most necessary for sustaining our life. Think about it: you had a first breath – the in-breath – the first breath you ever took as you entered this world. And you will have a last breath – the out-breath – as you leave your body, the vessel that has carried your spiritual essence through this physical experience.

Just as we breathe, the rhythm of our life also flows through in-breath and out-breath. At this time in our evolution, many people are experiencing an emptying out in their lives. Through changing circumstances, it may seem that your world is falling apart, decomposing, crumbling. This is the out breath. As the familiar shifts into the unfamiliar, feelings of panic and separation arise. Change brings on fear, but the other side of change is a sense of adventure, even joy.

It is often difficult to access the other side of change when one is not allowing what is happening to be. This change may seem to be unasked for and unwanted, however if it’s in your life, you have created it. When we try to hold on and resist change, we cause ourselves pain and only allow ourselves to see a limited view of what change has to offer us. We don’t see the gift of the new path that is opening up before us because we are focusing on what was and we are terrified of the unknown. Breath work, with the intention of allowing whatever is to be, is very helpful when in the midst of deep life changes. Slow, steady, conscious breathing helps to calm the mind, slow down your heart rate and bring you into the present moment and into your heart.

I often suggest to my clients that they breathe into the fear – or whatever the feeling is that’s causing them anxiety (no matter what the feeling is, fear will be at the bottom of it). Breathe into the feeling. What does this mean? Instead of denying, suppressing or running from what you’re feeling, be still within it, allow it to be and breathe as you feel it deeply. Can you allow love to exist within this pain? Can you feel compassion for yourself within this pain? You will find that, as soon as you feel the tiniest sparkle of love, everything will shift. Something begins to open up in the center of the pain, allowing compassion to flood in. Your heart will soon be uplifted and you will feel lighter. And then . . . you will be able to feel the flow.

Much like a river, there is a flow of energy moving all around us. Are you swimming with the flow? Sometimes it feels like the flow is pushing against us. In actuality, we are moving against it. Consider that this flow of energy – life force – love force – energy holds within it all the potential for your greatest good and there’s a stream of harmony within this flow that matches your resonance, yours alone. So, say you feel yourself reaching for something and then the flow seems to push you away from that which you wanted. Instead of fighting the current of the flow, why not take a moment to pause and assess where you are. Find the still-point. Allow the flow to carry you. Set your intention. Go with what feels good. The flow is connected to our hearts. Going with the flow is effortless. This is how we learn to follow our hearts, by feeling the flow. Soon you may find that there’s another pathway that will guide you more directly to your goal. This pathway would be felt as ‘going with the flow.’ This is what grows from accepting where we are and how we’re feeling.

When we move away from the flow we feel unhappy. Perhaps there’s something in the land of unhappy that you feel you still need to experience. Or, perhaps you just don’t know how to let go of the old familiar feeling of unhappiness. Or, also part of the field of possibilities, perhaps the very high vibrational energies that are bathing our solar system these days are bringing up that which is of a lower vibration, to be felt, diffused through love and acceptance and released. Forever. When painful feelings arise, they are showing you something that is blocking the flow. As you shine the light of awareness on it and allow yourself to feel it with compassion, it will begin to dissolve and release and you will feel the flow gently moving through you. It is good to know that this clearing actually shrinks the land of unhappy, creating just a little more light on the Earth plane.

There is a new way of being that is growing out of our hearts – it is a deep desire to be free, to live in freedom and love. Notice that the changes in your life contain elements of these feelings and see if you can let go into it. The flow is moving through our hearts and the flow feels like freedom and happiness. Breathing into the pain is where the shift begins. This new way of being is more heart-focused than mind-focused. Going with the flow is the in-breath of our new life.

Rev. Nancy Leilah Ward is a channel for the group consciousness Many of One, and a psychic intuitive offering readings and energy healing to help empower people on their life journeys. She has been practicing Reiki Usui Shiki Ryoho, Reiki Jin Kei Do, Buddho EnerSense; and Reflexology since 1990 and is ordained in the Order of Melchizedek and the Universal Life Church. Currently, she is undergoing training in Soul Realignment. She offers monthly guided meditation and channeling groups, workshops on Spirit Guidance, Energy Bodies and Channeling, and is the author of the Soul Transitions Monthly Vibe Report. She is also a writer and visionary painter working through dreams, meditation journeys and intuitively following pathways of inspiration