The Breath - All that (it) Is

 

The Breath - All that (it) Is

Becoming fully Conscious of the Breath is opening the door to Love. 

I remember that moment in August 2008 when I first realised that I had never really loved, as if it were just a few seconds ago.

It was right after a Conscious Breath Workshop, my very first, facilitated by my dear friend Placídia Espinha, sharing wise moments from Norma Delaney, coined as the Doctor of Breath, and who would come to be my Mentor of Isness, the one I have always looked to as a living example of what it truly is to be a Divine Human, and even now that she has passed, she still walks by me on my path of Being Human a breath at a time, in the deepest Compassionate Breath. 

As I gradually fell into the soothing rhythm of her voice, into the words that resonated so deeply that they seemed to be my own, in the sweet arms of my breath, something gradually changed forever within me. 

My heart was beating strong, so intensely that it seemed to want to jump out of my chest, my Mind knew not what to say, how to define this, my body was shuddering from head to toe. It seemed like the air I was breathing wasn’t enough to fill all of the space that was opening up in me. In my Centre. Home. 

At the end of the workshop, after having taken one of the participants to the station, with my car parked in front of my house, an astounding encounter took place in my belly. All of a sudden, all of the love I had sought for outside of me bloomed in my guts, filling me completely. The tears streamed down my cheeks. I was laughing and crying all at once, shaken by the realisation that all of the Love was, at long last, within me. 

I felt everything I had felt whenever I had fallen in love, but now it was inside of me, with myself and with an extraordinary difference. This love was forever, without the shadow of any doubt. The Love of my Essence. And thus a dance of infinite Love ensued, as I was invited a breath at a time to receive myself more and more and more, to allow, to let go, to stay. 

I had initiated my quest of myself in 2004, having quickly obtained my Reiki Masters, my Magnified Healing Masters and a series of other practices, starting to facilitate courses in 2005, with am ineffable thirst for discovering myself, going through process upon process, practicing with unquestionable discipline, for my focus was only one: to be free. 

And though I had been lost for the rest of my life up until then, lost in the worldly need to do and have, from the moment I heard my inner calling to find myself, nothing could stop me. 

It was a painful journey, which seemed so slow to me, unending. As soon as I discovered one more layer of ego to unfold, dozens summed up to it, in a growing mountain that seemed impossible to transcend. 

I knew I could not give up. I wasn’t aware why I was in a hurry, but the truth is I couldn’t stop that crazy speed. 

There was nothing more relevant to me but to transcend myself and no matter how challenging each new wave of emotions that came forth for transmutation was, the path remained one: ahead. 

I have always known that one learns more when teaching, so I improved my knowledge to the degree where I could teach what I needed to learn, remaining coherent with my practices, certain that I could not accurately share what I was not experiencing myself. 

Where and who was God after all? Where and who was was I? What were we? What was life for? How did things happen the way they did and why? … So many questions which I needed answers for. I was insatiable. 

I studied, and studied, and practiced, and learnt, and taught, and practiced and practiced without not even one day in-between until that moment in 2008 when Love flooded me, at last.

This was the advent of Trust. Unquestionable Trust. And the Breath gradually became my only point of Presence, of returning to the Here and Now, my focus beyond illusion.

From then on the journey did not become easier. Not at all. It intensified exponentially. In the exact proportion of this infinite Love, so did my Shadow Self show itself, Shadow upon Shadow upon Shadow, all of my fears standing in line to visit and question me. My worst traits, my most feared incongruities… Everything being stripped bear. Naked. No filters. No hiding. More and more into myself. 

And I breathed.

Everything that bothered me in the outside world was reviewed inside, for I soon realised that the world was just a reflexion of my own glasses.

I climbed many Courses, I dived, I overcame. Through the Crimson Circle, also introduced to me by wise Placídia, I discovered Aspectology - the dance of the Aspects of Personality and at a live course in Frankfurt, with over 250 people present, I saw my darkest Shadow right in front of me. The darkest there is in all of us. And I understood that the Devil was not really out there. It was and always had been inside. 

On one hand it was a relief - I no longer needed to protect myself from something unknown that could assault me any instant, coming from anywhere. On the other hand, this Shadow was the most feared one. The one that can kill. The one that is capable of the most atrocious acts and that lives in the unexplored intimacy of each one… waiting… always commanding, wanting to become our very Soul.

And I breathed. 

The Compassionate Breath has always been my Safe Space, soft and gentle, bringing me by the hand back into the unified Human and Divine, who merge to create a truly loving reality. Serene. Simple. 

With the consistent practice of Conscious Breath, or Compassionate Breath, as I like to call it, one can attain absolutely everything that really matters. In other words, all that humanity in general expresses a need for: happiness, peace, love, harmony, abundance, health…

But how can it be so simple? Well the “how” becomes irrelevant because the practical and real experience of what happens when breathing consciously proves itself. It defeats the need for explaining. 

Conscious Breath is not even a practice, such is its simplicity.

It boils down to just breathing deeply and softly through the nose (unless it is blocked… and then one breathes as one can ;) ), allowing the diaphragm to relax, so that the belly can expand when one inhales and rest when one exhales. At first it can be challenging for those carrying a lot of tension in the chest, for it can seem that one cannot get to the belly, but the point is to just allow the breath to find its own way, without trying to control or force its flow. It will adjust to its own rhythm. 

This breath is called conscious, because it is all about us becoming aware of it, bringing all of our attention to it, feeling it coming into our body and filling it, as we accompany it while it comes in and goes out, bringing ourselves completely to the here within us, right now. Letting go of all the rest. Allowing the thoughts to float on the surface as if they were leaves rolling down a stream, without having to hold onto any one of them and not having to control them either. Letting go and staying. More and more, just staying. Allowing the breath to cuddle us, warm us and embrace us, to fill us and expand us. 

Any tensions immediately start to dissipate and a space of inner silence starts to open up, a space where we feel welcome to stay, landing in our Centre, our gravity Centre, down below the navel. A space that opens up to receive us, as we open up to be just here, in this complete now moment. 

In this space in us we can finally feel held. It is, after all, our House, our Safe Space. 

And it is from this Point of Presence, at the core of each Conscious Breath, that we can observe ourselves compassionately, without the noise of judgement, without the distractions of having to do, think, run… and even of having to hold onto our stories. We become the observer, void of space and time. Just Present to whatever is showing up in our conscious awareness. 

Acceptance becomes a boon, received in profound gratitude for only with it can we choose again, without fighting against ourselves. Cooperating with our expanded wisdom, diving into our feeling senses so that the mind can serve us, rooting firmly in our body, in our life, taking full responsibility. 

This has a practical and tangible effect on our health, for all of the imbalances become clear and we can thus see, embrace and transform whatever was causing eventual diseases of any kind. And even accepting the natural course of life and death, if this is the inner calling. 

The immune system becomes strong, for fear is recognised and transmuted, stress is reduced and eliminated, eating habits and all other daily practices become more coherent with our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being without having to be imposed. It becomes natural and simple to respect ourselves and lovingly care for ourselves. 

We can behold the world without being in a constant fight against this or that, understanding the greater whole which has its own rhythm and which we can contribute to in a very precious way through our serene presence, if we choose it to be so. 

We gain access through the Compassionate Breath, to all of the answers we have sought for so much and even to the possibility of letting go of most of the questions for they become irrelevant as the continuous clarity dispels them. Our extra-sensorial capacities expand, giving us access to much more than we could see so far, allowing us to let go of our perceived limitations, as we evolve and mature emotionally, spiritually, entirely. 

We become able to make wise and coherent decisions, of letting go of the compulsion to procrastinate, which has served the purpose of decelerating our own evolutionary process and we can access extraordinary creativity. This allows us to create truly valuable lives, full of purpose and replenished with everything we have dreamt of but did not really believe to be possible. 

Yes. That’s it. The Conscious Breath, in all of its Compassion, is the fertile ground from which all of the impossibles are born. Whatever the Mind denied because it could not grasp or comprehend, becomes visible and simple, and whatever is not visibly feasible is simply irrelevant and unnecessary. 

Effort, the need to be perfect and to have everything under control, the illusions of us not being good enough, capable, useful, etc, are dispelled, as well as guilt, shame, resentment and so many more prisons. 

The Small Human Self feels welcome, since it is in the arms of the Breath, in our Centre, at Home, that resides the Essence of all that we Are, the crystalline love that alchemizes all of our pain.

And though it may begin as a meditative practice - without being actual meditation since it does not depend on visualisation and other components of classic meditation - it gradually becomes a way of life, the way of permanently remaining in the here and now. With consistency, through our choice to become focused and bringing our attention to the Breath in every moment, in any place. In this body. In this life.

And it is so infinitely simple.

I believe that it is exactly in this simplicity that the greatest resistance in allowing the Breath to be our guide, our permanent inner Guru, resides. But despite all of the resistances, it remains available to be received and accepted as it is. 

And I breathe. I breathe myself complete. Alive. Present and grateful. I receive myself and give myself in each continuous instant. Being all that I Am. Nothing and no one is ever missing for I have all of the love inside of me. I have discovered that I am abundance itself! And the most incredible thing is that love comes to me from everywhere, everyone, in every way, in an unconfined flow of such magnificent proportions that I could never have imagined this. Magical. Truly magical. 

This is InPassion’s invitation - Inspiring Passion. Breathing ourselves in fulfilment. Alive. Present and grateful. With no separation between the in-breath and the out-breath. No lapse between giving and receiving. Being and having. Knowing and doing. Simply being Human, Divine, all.