I read a CNN article new year's week about the lives of five different people. The one that stood out to me was the story of a man who in his teens had a drug addiction, a criminal record, and was sentenced to jail. The young man phoned his father in anguish. His father told him to breathe. Not just ordinary breathing. He told him to pay attention to his breathing and to count each breath, so that he could be in the moment and not think about the past or the future. Through this breathing technique the young man discovered meditation. Each breath helped him to think only of the present, recover from his past, and move toward a positive future.
 | When I get stressed or wake up in the middle of the night with my mind churning over a thousand things, I try and count each breath I take. It is not an easy task. It can be very difficult to quiet your mind and think only about your breathing, but in doing so you begin to relax and it makes accomplishing whatever job you have easier. The young man from the story said he compared concentrating on the breathing to rolling a joint. You must stay focused on the task you are performing. This analogy doesn't work well for me, so I compared the focus of breathing to threading a needle. For the last week I have been trying this. Last night I watched an episode of "Teen Wolf," yes "Teen Wolf," don't judge me, and the female main character had to perform a task, which started with threading a needle. She was so emotionally distraught that she could not thread the needle. Her subconscious told her she had to quiet her mind, slow her pulse, steady her breathing, and focus on the task at hand. I didn't notice the synchronicity of this at the time I watched the show. I noticed it at two a.m. when I woke up, couldn't go back to sleep, and had to focus on breathing. Do you think there seem to be more synchronistic events in my life because I am aware of them or is the universe trying to tell me something? |
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