Be Gentle with Yourself

Close your eyes.  Take a deep breath.  Notice how easy it is to draw oxygen into your body.  And then imagine what happens to that very oxygen that you have invited in…where does it go?  What does it do?  Amazing isn’t it?  How the breath is automatic, rhythmic, and you don’t even have to think about inhaling and exhaling…it just happens.  And then that breath knows where to go in your body, how to nourish the tissues, and feed the cells and be distributed for use within the body, without you having to control or think about any of those processes.  It just happens.  With ease.  Even when we are stressed, faced with anxiety, the breath still comes in and out without our need to control it.  Life is much like the breath.  We can exist on autopilot and life will happen.  When we drop our awareness into life, into the breath, we can reveal the intricacies and inner workings of both.  When we engage in life gently, like breath, we find beauty, serenity and calm.  The world is wild out there…but that doesn’t mean that it has to be wild within too.  This week we are reminded to be gentle with our selves, to take a breath and find our calm.  Life is busy, life is uncertain, life is unpredictable…yes.  But life is also unfolding in every moment, where new opportunities and awareness’s and engagements are possible.  Whatever “being gentle with yourself” means to you, do it this week.  Read.  Run.  Colour.  Walk.  Paint.  Dance. Sing. Find your gentle. And then breathe.

Xo Juli