"How many breaths do you take in a day?" was recently asked of a group of meditation students.
This is not a pop quiz so let me give you the answer, which is 15-20 breaths per minute. If we use the number 15 then in 60 minutes we would take 900 breaths. Multiply 900 by 24 and that means we take 21,600 breaths in one day or 24 hour period.
I know how many times I do things in a day such as brush my teeth, wash my face, eat, run, yoga, sleep etc but I couldn't tell you how many times I take a breath. OK, so it is part of the autonomic nervous system and we don't have to think about it. But imagine if we did. I bet we wouldn't have to worry about over populating the planet :) But seriously, take a moment and think about that. If our breath didn't happen unless we had to pay attention to it, maybe we would all be advanced yogis and put an intention toward every breath we take. We have been given instead an amazing earthly body that handles this function from the moment we leave our mother's womb until the time of our death. This blog is an invitation to sit for 3 minutes sometime today and pay attention to each inhale and exhale you take. One technique I find helpful is to say the word Ohm. With each inhale mentally say Oh and each exhale mentally say mmmm.
Perhaps try this for the next 30 days and see what develops for you.
We cannot breathe for yesterday, we cannot breathe for tomorrow, we can only breathe now.
In awe and gratitude for my breath, this gift of life.
Namaste