Breathe people. Breathe.

How to receive the ever-expanding gift of life in a world dying from anxiety

photo credit: cottonbro studio

Let’s talk about breathing. You’d think it would be a no-brainer since we breathe all the time without thinking about it. But I’m beginning to understand it’s more important than I ever knew.

Our first entrance into this world as newborn babies is testified to with a deep inhale, followed quickly (we all hope) with the sound of exhale - a cry! As adults, we can go months without food, days without water but only minutes without breath. Air is literally life to humanity. Breathing is the first sign of life beginning and the final signal of our life on earth ending.

Breathing is what endorsed humanity as a spirit-bearer/representative of God when God first breathed into Adam and Eve. In much of the early scriptures spirit and breath are synonymous. The name of God in the Hebrew witness is YHWH (the sound of breath). In our Christian tradition, when Jesus rose from the dead, he came to the disciples who were afraid and locked away and he ‘breathed on them’. The big theological idea is that Jesus was re-creating a new humanity - infusing in the disciples the Spirit of Jesus as he breathed into Adam and Eve in the first creation. We are told that spirit is the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. The spirit of life and love and resurrection power. This spirit gives us the power to overcome fear, death, and the powers of darkness. Breath is life in the physical and the spiritual realms. And that breath is connected to how we operate in this world.

Which leads me to why all this might matter these days.

I’ve been exploring what is taking our breath away. I don’t mean this the way you might think. Often times we think of amazing things taking our breath away - like when we behold a sunset, open an extravagant gift, or fall in love. But I’ve recently felt an evil intent, a nefarious conspiracy, a cultural phenomenon that chips away at our quality and quantity of life - taking our breath away. Fear.

It occurs to me this isn’t new. I think when Jesus breathed on the disciples when they were afraid, he was doing something spiritual AND he was doing something physical. We aren’t ‘spiritual beings’ with bodies. We are humans. Which means our spirits are embodied. Our bodies are infused with our spiritual reality. So, when the disciples are breathed on by Jesus they are given a spiritual gift of God’s spirit within them AND they are given the strategy to overcome fear - breath. Let me break this down a bit.

Fear constricts. Breathe expands.

Think about it.

When fear is present our bodies constrict physically. Start thinking about what you do (unconsciously) when you are afraid. Anxiety is fear by the way. Think of what you do when you are anxious. You constrict. You tighten. You restrict. Experts tell me that you literally stop breathing (you hold your breath) when you are afraid or anxious. Your body naturally prepares itself for impact by constricting itself. It turns inward - and gets smaller and harder - your muscles tighten, your breath gets shallow (or holds), your brain gets less oxygen, your blood flow slows, and you are slowly, incrementally losing your life force. Obviously, this doesn’t happen for more than minutes at a time or you’d cease living. But this does happen many times in small increments daily. Once you start paying attention to it you’ll spot it in your life all the time. As the backdrop of anxiety in our world slowly gets louder - like the steady hum of anxiety that accompanies our everyday activities, this fear encroaches on our body, brain, muscles, lungs, and spirits. It takes our breath away. It takes life away. Our quality of living, thinking, loving, and relating gets smaller. This anxiety is slowly killing us. So, what do we do?

We breathe.

photo credit: kelvin Valerio

There is so much more to say about this and I’m still exploring many different breath techniques but what is blowing my mind is that as I consciously work on my breathing, my spirit feels like it is expanding. What do I mean?

I can feel anxiety loosening, and fear leaving as I make space for breath in my daily life. I can feel the effects of oxygen in my mind as it relaxes while I breathe, I can feel my body feeling more energized and my heart calming, I feel more present than I have before when I practice intentional breathing. I have never connected this kind of work to my spiritual life before. I’ve always thought of my body as a separate (albeit connected) work from my spiritual work. My devotions and my exercises are different things done in different places with different techniques. But my breath work has been connected in a way I never expected. Every time I work on breathing, both my body and my spirit are involved. And it leaves me refreshed and alive in ways I didn’t imagine. It turns out breathing is deeply spiritual and deeply physical and it might be one of the main ways we embody our faith in the most natural and life-giving strategies.

Why not try it?

Here are a few techniques that are easy to start with (but if you google guided breathing techniques you will find hundreds of them):

First, find a place where you can be comfortable… if you are sitting, use a chair with a backing you can lean on. I use these techniques when I travel all the time. If you are lying down - even better! Just try lying on your back in a relaxed posture.

And begin. :-)

The simple count: four counts in and five counts out. Repeat.

The simple count with incremental increases: four counts in (hold for four) five counts out (hold for five) and go up one every round - so, second round five counts in (five hold), six counts out (hold for six), six counts in (hold 6), seven counts out…etc…

Continuous breathing: try to breathe deeply and then exhale as a ‘letting go’ instead of a conscious long exhale… just ‘let go’ of your breath on the exhale and then breathe in again before it’s over. So, there is no end or beginning to your breath - it’s a continuous flow… this takes a while to get but it is really fun - try it for a minute. This has become one of my favorite surrender exercises. On the ‘letting go’ part, make it a relaxing of your body - and celebrate that you are ‘letting go’ of control - releasing it to God.

If you’d like to add some prayers to the breath this has also been a helpful practice for me:

My fav: Be (on the inhale) Loved (on the exhale)

More: (endless really, as you use what you are exploring in your own spiritual life - SO MANY VERSES to explore in the Scriptures).

Jesus Christ - Have Mercy

Christ in Me - Hope of Glory

I AM - with you

Be Still - And Know

God is Love - I am Loved

God is Light - I am Light

God is Here - I am here

Another way to use these breath prayers is to think of someone in need of prayer and with them in mind - breathe one of these prayers. Sometimes when I do this I get some revelation or insight into what more to pray and I keep praying or pass on those thoughts to the people I’ve prayed for.

When I use these prayers for myself I ask God to give me more insight into how I can participate with Spirit as I pray and many ideas, thoughts, and insights come for me to explore further.

There is much more to say, but for now, let’s just try breathing as an act of non-conformity with a culture dominated by anxiety and fear. I’m going to imagine Jesus finding you, wherever fear has locked you in and taken your breath away, and breathing on you! I’m going to imagine the Creators' breath bringing you back to life in all it’s fullness.

May you be filled with the sacred breath of God today.