Friday 3 March 2017

March 3, 2017 Chautauqua




Beth's Ponderings

   How much space do you take up in this world?  

   Now, let me clarify what I mean by “space.”

   I don’t mean the square footage of your house, or your workplace/office, or if you even have multiple residences.  I don’t mean how many belonging you have and the entire square footage they occupy.  And, I definitely don’t mean the size of your physical shape - whether you are tall or short, bigger or smaller around.

   Space, in the context that I am using it, has both a macro and micro element to it.  

   On the macro level, how large an area does your influence ripple out?  Are you known outside of your immediate community, or do you tend to keep to yourself?  How large is your circle of friends and acquaintances?  You don’t have to be “famous” to have lots of influence, just kind.

   Now, the micro level of space is a bit different, and, of the two levels, is the most important.  It is also the easiest to measure at any given moment, and boils down to just one simple observation - how full and deep was your last breath?

   There are only three types of “fuel” our body needs: air, water, and food, and the most vital one is air, yet, because it enters our bodies predominately without conscious thought, we tend to ignore it.  The vast majority of us barely fill 20% of our lungs with each breath!  No wonder so many of us - myself included many days - feel tired and weak all the time, and when we feel threatened in any way, we tend to shrink inward - like a turtle into its shell - to protect ourselves.

   Yet the only way to really protect ourselves is to relax, inhale fully and deeply, and open our chests.  By filling more energetic “space” with each inhale we are able to sense - with our hearts - more of the world around us, and filling more space with full, deep inhalations is also the secret to thriving and living a healthy life.

   The size of our houses, and the number of belongings we own, matters not if we don’t fully inhabit the energetic “space” that we have been given to embody with each breath we take.

Beth

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