Patterns, patterns, patterns everywhere.

Today’s excerpt from something more. connecting to the pulse of a shared humanity, was posted four years ago on March 7, 2020. My beloved Kindness Yoga was a few weeks away from shutting down its physical spaces and go online. It was a few months away from being shut down completely.

On Monday night, I facilitated belly breathing as part of checkIN- step five to high school students. The day prior, I shared my notes in a blog post, skip., from a morning writing adventure that included a ‘breathing brainstorm’ in an effort to organize my thoughts for the class. I shared the notes at the bottom of this post.

I have an opinion. My opinion is that it is more beneficial to share beliefs, thoughts, ideas, strategies, stories, that contribute to a shared sense of somethingmore, or possibility, as opposed to contributing to lack or scarcity. If we love our young people, we can continue to love them as they grow older. If we believe in young people, we can continue to believe in them as they grow older. Depending on one’s age, do we stop believing in the possibility of the other when they are teens? twenties? thirties? forties? When we speak of the world as ‘crazy’, or say ‘the world today…’ with negative intonation, what are we passing on to the young people? To pass on a sense of possibility has to begin with a personal belief in possibility. Possibility is a ‘vibe’. It is a vibrational state of being that ripples outward. What if we as individuals find value in contributing to a state of possibility, and practice the noticing and returning to the state, with intention, most of the time?

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And now I offer you…..belly.

Reflective questions:

1. Are you beginning to notice familiar patterns by comparison to four years ago? Do you find peace in the patterns, or discomfort? Can you be open to using breath to soothe the discomfort? Can you be open to considering a personal belief in somethingmore to move through discomfort?
2. Notice split energy. Do you believe in possibility, yet speak of lack and scarcity? Split energy is a tricky beat. Life is set up to contradict itself in opposing forces. To know good, is to know bad. But…who is the observer of what is considered good? bad? Who tells the story? When one feels good, what does that indicate? When one feels balanced and acknowledges a sense of possibility, does one want to cause harm to self or other? Is this a state of equilibrium? Is there one stabilizing source?
3. Can you notice breath? Can you slow it down? Why would you? Can you benefit from noticing breath, and practice using it to intentionally soothe yourself? Why would you? Would the benefits ripple?

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Here are the breathing notes I referenced from skip.:

Here is another segment taken from my morning writing. I was preparing for my Monday lesson. We are on step five of the checkIN: breath. Consider my morning writing as a brainstorming session. Interpretation is ultimately up to you and your purposes for the outcomes you want in day.

Review checkIN and how it can apply to day.:

1. Notice. One may begin to intentionally practice awareness. This can be a daily or weekly session, maybe you name it Quiet Time. 
2. Or, one may notice discomfort and choose to be curious about it, rather than react to it. A belief about discomfort may be that it is an indicator. Discomfort has a message.  
3. Either way (#1 or #2) the effectiveness is dependent on what one thinks, or believes, about one’s ability to create desired outcomes. In the case of #1, if one believes that practicing the skill of awareness is beneficial to one’s wellbeing, then one will practice and notice benefits in day. When recognizing one’s growth, consider intensity, duration, frequency. Patterns are maddening. It’s maddening to return to the same episode of cause and effect. I suppose, for our purposes, ‘cause’ or ‘stimulus’ may be the situation. The situation, circumstance, or event is happening or happened. It’s done. Now what? Ellen Langer may say that one can respond mindfully or mindlessly. A mindful response may be the thought, ‘I have been here before’. Soothing one’s visceral response, or feeling/sensation indicators that are getting your attention/focus, is a mindful response. The mindful response is connected with an appreciation or love for yourself. You are the voice you want to hear from the other. You soothe the response. You say ‘it’s okay, we have been here before. We’re doing good. It’s a pattern. It’s something to be curious about. We’ll get better. Let it go for now. Reacting will not change anything. Let’s let the momentum play out. We will get to a better feeling state. And then we’ll do the next thing.” 
4. Name discomfort. Discomfort is an indicator that gets your focus. 

What do I think about breath? How do I use breath? To start, when I began facilitating mindfulness I would really mess myself up thinking about breath. It seems like such a simple thing. Breathing is a natural occurrence. It also makes sense that the rate of our breath is messaging the cells in our body. If we are breathing mindlessly, we may be breathing in a way that sends a message of stress which is telling our intelligent stress response that there is a potential danger, threat, or challenge that we need to prepare for. 

Side note: At this time, I am a bit uncertain about the difference between hormones and neurotransmitters. I think I know that cortisol is a stress hormone and dopamine is a neurotransmitter. Before listening to dopamine detox, I think I assumed dopamine was also a hormone. I am not sure of the difference between hormone and neurotransmitter, I could google it, but for now I know that the body responds to our messaging. The messaging we send is evident in our feeling state. If we are alarmed we signal a possible need for protection (fight, flight, freeze); if we are interpreting what is happening to connect to a feeling state of safety and security, then we allow for messaging to contribute to a balanced state of equilibrium, not too much, not too little, just right. 

Today’s lesson is checking IN to breath. 

Notice.

Just notice. 

Breath in. Breath out.

Compassionate awareness: w/o judgment, comparison, criticism.

Breath in. Breathe out. Doodle. Color. Fidget. Notice breath. I breathe in. I breathe out.

Consider: Mind is to brain like breath is to body. Some may say that the mind is all of it. Some may say that it’s the awareness of mind and body. If one takes out awareness and gets lost in thoughts and ideas it can feel disconnected, particularly if the thoughts and ideas are not helpful. If one is just in the body allowing breath to do its thing, one’s experience can be disconnected because of the messaging breath is giving to body. Fast paced breath or short breath into chest indicates stress which is activating fight/flight/freeze. Slow, expansive, intentional breath signals safety and security. Mind and Body connected is like puzzle pieces that allow for an integrated state.

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