Breathe for Self-care
Value of Breathing
The value of breathing for getting that reprieve from the constant churn of doing and letting the being take over, feels essential at this time. Feels more important to focus on the breath and redo the need to refocus energy into the breath as things pile up around in a metaphorical sense. Although, it feels like there is nothing pending in reality but the essential capitalistic need to constantly produce.
Need for Self-Care
Allowing the humanness to seep through feels utterly essential and brutally vital in this moment. This is to fiercely face the reality of self-care. It is wildly true that when we do not attend to the self-care as an essential mechanism for life, our body reminds us to do that for us. When we do not acknowledge the importance of self in the self-care. When we constantly take on the focus only the caregiving role in life. There is definitely not enough to pour out from an empty cup. Self-care empowers us to fill the cup mindfully, consciously, actively or passively.
Mindful Doing
If all that we can do to take care of ourself is focusing on our breaths. Be attentive to the things we are doing, so be it. Of course we all have the resistance. That, I do not want one more thing added to my plate. This is where breathe work comes into play. With mindful awareness of our day to day. As we move through the day, we focus on the breathe. Intentionally place the action in front of us and our connection with the activity, melding ourself into the behavior. This is mindful doing per DBT Marsha Linehan and Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindful tea drinking activity.
Steering away from AutoPilot
When we begin to engage mindfully in our daily activities there is room for understanding our way of life with a bit more intentionality. This way we are not mindlessly being on autopilot running through the motions. Instead, engaging with the activity in our hand reframing that to be what we would like to focus in this moment. Making a meaning out of it is essential to motivate ourselves to engage with that said activity. This leads to finding purpose in our life eventually in the long term.
Building a Life With Mindful Moments
Small drops of water form an ocean is the concept here. Building a life out of a connection of moments stringed together, as “Courage to be disliked” authors Ishiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga put it, is a way to see our life manifesting in front of us forming memories that stay with us for life. We all make meaning out of everything we do as social beings. Having that narrative sets us apart in nature to hold space for the narrative of others as well when we engage mindfully. Here’s to living life with intention!