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Thanks to Changing Planet for this article:

Taken from the Authentic Breathing Resources Newsletter
http://www.authentic-breathing.com


PASSAGE FROM "THE TAO OF NATURAL BREATHING"

Here is a short passage from Dennis Lewis' book "The Tao of
Natural Breathing," as well as an associated practice that he
though you might like to try.

"The process of breathing is a living metaphor for understanding
how to expand our narrow sense of ourselves and be present to the
healing energies that are both in and around us. Every time we
inhale we take in some 1022 atoms, including approximately one
million of the same atoms of air inhaled by Lao Tzu, Buddha,
Christ, and everyone else who has ever lived on this earth. Every
time we exhale, we return these atoms to the atmosphere to be
renewed for both present and future generations. Every time we
inhale, we absorb oxygen expelled into the atmosphere as a waste
product by the earth's plant life. Every time we exhale, we expel
carbon dioxide as a waste product into the atmosphere where it
can eventually be absorbed by this same plant life. In nature,
nothing is wasted. Our breath is a link in the cosmic ecology--in
the conservation, transformation, and exchange of substances in
nature's complex metabolism. It connects our so-called inner
world with the vast scale of the outer world-of the earth and its
atmosphere, as well as of all organic life--through the
perceptible alternation of yin and yang, of negative and
positive, of emptying and filling. The process of breathing, if
we can begin to understand it in relation to the whole of life,
shows us the way to let go of the old and open to the new. It
shows us the way to experience who and what we actually are. It
shows us the way to wholeness and well-being."

>From "The Tao of Natural Breathing," Copyright 1997 by Dennis
Lewis

===================================

NEW PRACTICE FROM DENNIS LEWIS

Having read this overview from my book (recommended before doing
this practice), here is a safe, simple practice that you can try
when you feel particularly stressed out, anxious, or fearful. The
exercise is best done outside where there are expansive vistas,
trees, grass, running water, and so on. If no such environment is
available to you now, then simply try it wherever you are.

The first step is to sense yourself as you are without trying to
change anything. Notice how you are breathing. Is your breath
full, shallow, fast, slow, quiet, noisy, even, uneven? What parts
of your body are breathing? Take a few minutes to notice all the
qualities that you can without intentionally changing anything.

Now see if you can sense the reality of yourself as part of
"organic life on earth". You can do this sitting, standing, or
lying down. Whatever posture you take notice how your weight is
supported effortlessly from beneath you. As you relax into this
support, notice how your breathing changes. Again take note of
all of its qualities.

Now, still feeling that you are being fully supported by the
earth, follow your exhalation, allowing yourself to see and
release anything that is disturbing you, realizing that your
exhalation is part of the cosmic ecology and will eventually be
used not just by plant life but by animals and other human
beings. When your inhalation arises, remember that the air you
take in has been influenced by everything that is living or has
ever lived on the earth. Take several breaths in this way,
noticing how your stress, anxieties and fears begin to wane as
they are absorbed into a larger sense of your own wholeness.
Enjoy this larger sense of wholeness as your breath takes place
within it. When you are ready to finish, take a moment to reflect
how your state has changed from when you began the practice.