Don't Forget to Breathe

I hear this phrase in every Peleton ride, Pilates video and HIIT cardio class. In fact, just this past year, I received the instruction from a doctor, a nutritionist, and a spouse to name a few. So cliché, this phrase tends to lose significance.

“Don’t forget to breathe."

My mind flashes back to 2007 when I reluctantly pressed the button on the elevator as my husband and I ascended to our first birthing class in that Upper East Side high-rise. Eight months pregnant and unsteady in every way, my anxiety swelled along with my ankles. I entered the NYC apartment of my birthing coach, a seasoned Lenox Hill Hospital labor and delivery nurse, whose soothing voice and striking red hair are forever etched in my memory . A six week class meant to inform, instruct, instill confidence and do you know what dominated our time together?

How to breathe through the pain.

In 2015, my two oldest children walked into our beloved neighborhood elementary school for Kindergarten and 3rd grade. Each week, they were escorted to a room decorated floor to ceiling in green butcher paper with bright pops of pink and yellow designating flowers. Appropriately, the room was referred to as ‘the garden’ and was set apart as a space to teach the children the value of mindfulness. Do you know what they focused on for 30 minutes every week?

How to breathe through the quiet.

More recently, after 40 years of life, I decided it would be prudent to do some blood work and focus on my overall health to better proactively address the aging years. Blood work, tests and labs all concluded that I need to focus on my digestive tract to help settle some chronic issues I’ve battled most of my life. I settled into the stiff armchair facing my nutritionist as she patiently walked through the results with me. A supplement was suggested here and there, but do you know what we focused on the most for that $100 hour?

How to breathe through the day.

In each example, not only was the importance of breathing emphasized, but more importantly the method of breathing.

Child-bearing = short, intentional breaths.

Mindfulness = slow, steady breaths.

Stress-fighting = long, ballooning breaths.

This past weekend, my family and I celebrated Easter by remembering that Christ is alive; he came and died not only to rescue and redeem but to defeat death and give us hope. Hope comes in remembering he chose to give up his life so that we could have life eternal.

Out of willing submission to His Father and His great love for you and me, we can now overcome whatever life holds because death no longer wins.

He is constantly revealing himself in new ways, but I pray that we can begin to view even the most common freedoms as gifts.

In a season where the very gift of breathing is on the forefront of each of our minds, it is not lost on me that breathing is a constant miracle before our very eyes. And yet, because of His life and death, we do not breathe the same. We are no longer simply inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide.

We inhale His divine power and exhale the ability to overcome.

We inhale His unending promises and exhale persevering peace.

We inhale His steadfast love and exhale patient love.

We inhale His abundant grace and exhale humble forgiveness.

We inhale His constant presence and exhale lasting rest.

Whatever this week holds for you, may I remind you of this one thing?

Don’t forget to breathe.