We Need Space
The brain is so beautiful in how it functions, creating a life outside of the physical body. An illusion of a sphere above our physical bodies that floats in orbit on the other end of eternity. Filled with a landscape for the eyes to see. The mind is powerful enough to destroy countries, but still intelligent enough to rebuild burning cities at times of havoc and distress.
The gift of stillness and breathing is one of many magic tricks when paired together offers the privilege of learning, adding a level of mastery to our lives and value to the journey we are all on. As the years move forward stillness and breathing gave me greater gifts in ways that will be written about one day. So what sparked this reflection? Well, it happened watching my youngest daughter who is three explore her mind.
Growing up, the environment around me did not foster a space to play or practice controlling my mind and its wild cosmic explosions. Carrying a background of sitting inside brushes for hours, days, weeks, and months observing the enemy turned into a skill that kept me dangerous with assassin’s hands and mind on the battlefield. This practice of stillness and breathing was never explained to me, or never was it placed in front of me to go and explore growing up. It wasn't on my radar till my mid to late twenties.
The spark of this exploration of blending stillness and breathing came after an injury to my low back and knee. Thanks to the homies Quinn and Ryan who gifted me with a lens that breathing affected the way we move. This gift sent me down an expedition to rebuild my foundation of movement both internally and externally. It first started with pranayama breathing which led me to Wim Hoff and a few others who paved the way and pioneered how breathing affects not just our physical being but our mind as well.
This new practice challenged me to be still while focusing on attaching and detaching to thoughts, feeling, and emotions while doing internal reconnaissance - a breacher charge of some sort into my heart. My mom would tell you that growing up she couldn’t slow me down, and today my wife would say the same thing. And now with children of my own, the same thing can be said for them. Getting older and becoming a bit more aware of how I feel, seems to show me that moving consistently is ok, but there needs to be a period of rest and regeneration to allow for my body and mind to recover - a mental aid station.
Over the thirty fours years on this earth, one thing learned is that my mind and physical body works in bursts of energy, and when the tank is empty. An overwhelming sense of suffocation takes hold and swiftly sends my thriving life to swimming frantically trying to outrace the black hole of emotions causing a whirlwind of issues.
As the architect of this expedition, becoming a dad is to adopt the craftsman’s mindset; a similar process with art and now in my life. The skills gathered to this point are my tools to help teach my children how to have a world they want of peace and happiness and it starts with the littlest of things. Stillness and breathing are magic tricks that will never go dry, only evolve with more time behind closed eyelids traveling their minds. To share such moments with my children is the most impactful in my eyes. It adds nutrients to the ocean of curiosity to keep learning new magic tricks. Finding stillness and breathing has turned into an unlimited amount of space to swim wild and free inside a body of water with a depth deeper than the Arctic sea.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and you might have noticed, I did not use the word meditation. As it can be triggering and push people away from wanting to read more, especially if you the reader who built a wall of dislike to meditation. So, leading with stillness and breathing is my way of changing the landscape, so that hopefully you can find the urge to try this activity to find the space you may need. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
