Several people have asked me to write about spirituality and relationships. As with all beginnings, let's start with the breath.
Take some slow, deep breaths that go all the way down into your belly, and allow yourself to feel them as fully as possible. . . . That is your life, right at your core and in your breathing. Here is where you start a relationship. It all begins with your relationship with yourself.
Who is this being you find there in the breath, and what is your relationship with that inner self? The character of this relationship forms the basis for your relationships with others. The quality and depth of your intimacy with yourself determines the parameters of the intimacy you can have with someone else.
So notice what you find as you breathe:
What is it like to inhale slowly, to feel the breath in your belly as it resides there for a moment after the inhalation is complete, to exhale slowly, to feel the gap between the exhalation and the next in-breath?
What do you appreciate about your breath as you experience its movement?
What do you notice about yourself when you breathe deeply and slowly?
What holds you back from feeling your breath completely?
What keeps you from breathing further down into yourself than you do?
Experiential curiosity about our very breath leads us to experiential understanding of who we are, about who it is we take into relationship with others.
I'll continue this in my next post. Meanwhile, breathe and notice.
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