Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Take Time to BREATHE!


Take a second and listen to your breath. Watch your chest rise with each inhale and fall with each exhale. Think about where that breath is going when you take it in, and what is releasing when you send it out.
We never spend much time thinking about our breath. We think about it when it’s cold and we can see it. We think about it when we have exhausted it and our breathing is labored. The focus of the breath is essentially my practice in yoga. But, we don’t really have to think about it. We just do it. We just breathe.
Our breath is what keeps up here. The breath is what can take us back to the present moment. The breath is what keeps our bodies working. When we breathe, we send oxygen to every little cell in our body, keeping them working and expelling carbon dioxide which each exhale. Breathing is the first thing we do when we are born and the last thing we do before we die.
Dolphins are conscious breathers. They do not breathe automatically like we do. They actually decide when to breathe. They even must think about it whilst they are sleeping, which means that a part of their brain has to constantly remain awake for a dolphin to remember to breathe. For humans, we can have prolonged periods of unconsciousness and not have to worry that our breathing will stop because we are no longer thinking about it. Dolphins use what is known as unihemispheric sleep, meaning only one hemisphere of the brain can sleep at a time in order for the other one to control the breathing. While sleeping, they rest on the surface of the water, for breathing purposes. They are actively thinking about their breath, always.
Imagine if we had to think about breathing. Imagine if you had to make a decision. If I decide not to breathe at this moment, I can decide if I want to live or if I want to die. We never think about our breath in this way. Most of us never really think about our breath in general. We just know we do it and we know that it is important, but we never take the time to focus on it. We think about breathing in terms of living. The breath gives us life. If we are no longer breathing, we are no longer alive. We don’t think about breath in terms of dying until we have to.
Have you ever watched someone take their last breath?
When you know someone is leaving this Earth, you do not focus on their kidneys. You do not focus on their heart. You do not focus on their brain. You focus on their breath. There are patterns of breath that come before death. While these other organs may be failing and causing the actual death, it is the breathing that we can see and hear. As death nears, the breath becomes irregular. Rapid breathing may occur at first, followed a period of little to no breath. The time between each breath becomes longer. It can be a few seconds in between. It can be as long as a minute. When you are watching a loved one in this state, that is what you are watching, the breath. When the final breath is taken, you know. You know that is it. That person has left this Earth.
Do we then focus on our own breath?
We should. Focusing on our breath keeps us in the present. We live each moment by each breath. The next breath is not guaranteed. Each time we breathe, we are sending oxygen to the brain. We are sending oxygen to the places in our body that need it in that present moment. Taking some time each day to focus on your breath will ground you in the present moment. It does not matter what is happening around you. It does not matter what thoughts are racing through your mind. As soon as you stop and focus on your breathing, that becomes the only thought. It becomes the only focus. It’s good to take some time each day and focus on the thing that keeps us living, to just be grateful that we can breathe.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

I Just Can't LET IT GO

If you could name any movie in the last ten years that has had such a huge impact on society what would it be?

There's only one answer.

Hint: The cold doesn't bother her anyway.

Yes, it's Frozen.

I hate the cold. I hate the winter. The cold really bothers me. I don't know how Elsa does it. But she does. And "Let it Go" is such an empowering song until she says, "the cold never bothered me anyway," because it really does bother me and it's terrible.

But, enough negativity.

My little cousin ruined the entire movie for me. 

If I could go back in time, this is the moment I would go back to. I would like to experience Frozen for the first time again. Everyone marveled at how different it was and how well done it was and how great the soundtrack is. The soundtrack is pretty great, however, I don't know how I feel about the movie because I never got the experience of seeing it from start to finish without knowing the ending.

So stop reading if you haven't seen it yet, because SPOILER ALERT below. (Also, if you haven't seen it, what have you been doing with your life?)

I was babysitting and my little cousins suggested that we watch Frozen. Maybe this should've been a red flag for me. Should I have agreed to watch Frozen for the first time ever with a bunch of little kids? Maybe not. But I was too excited. This was it. I was finally going to experience what the hype was all about. We put the movie in. How exciting. I was like a little kid. For the first time in foreverrrrrrrr there was magic and there was light in my life. Until shortly after that song, Prince Hans appears on screen. At this point, you are thinking, here he is, the prince, coming for Anna or Elsa or whatever. Such innocence. Until my little cousins yells, "THAT GUY TURNS INTO THE BAD GUY AT THE END."

INSERT FACEPALM EMOJI HERE.

The entire movie ruined. Right there. The rest of my night was a total letdown. I had already known that Prince Hans was not the one. I had already known that the was really the first Disney movie where a princess didn't end up with a prince. My entire life came crashing down. I didn't get the experience those emotions when you really learn who Prince Hans is. The events didn't get to unfold before my very eyes that one time. They were just spit in my face. I was never able to really experience Frozen the way it was meant to be experienced. This has been a real tipping point with me and society. Because of this, I have seen Frozen as lesser. Mulan is better. Moana is better. But is this true? I don't know what truth is any more because I don't know if Frozen would've been better to me that Moana. I really have no idea. I struggle with this internally. Things aren't always what they seem but Frozen now seems to me to be not as great as I had hoped. Is it because I have bitterness toward the above situation? Is it because I never got the experience of finding out about Prince Hans on my own? Or, is it really because I like Moana better. 

I just cannot let it go.

A Note to Everyone

Hello fam,

It's been a while.

I miss this space. I created this blog as a way to practice writing initially. I didn't really have other intentions. Traffic starting picking up (as I was getting a little better) and it became more than practice. It became a way to entertain. My moving to Sam's Club blog even got me on television and won an award. I was living a good life on this blog. It was light and happy and funny, like me. (I'd like to think that's like me, anyway).

Then my life became not so light and happy and funny. It became deep and dark and quite depressing. This inspiration that I had for my light and funny posts had dissipated. I struggled for a long time trying to decide, do I write the deep and dark? Will I lose my audience because the tone of my blog changes? Do I really want to write these things for everyone? Do I show the world that life isn't always light and funny?

I don't know what the right answer was. I just know that I had decided that instead of publishing any writings from those years, I would just not publish anything. I couldn't find that girl that wanted to live in Sam's Club or that girl who was waiting on a visit from Oprah to her home. I did however carry with me the girl who still has a lot of questions about the "cloud" (where is this cloud?) and the girl who spends a lot of time on WebMd. In my last few posts, I combined the light and dark a little, but I struggled to find that entertainment aspect that I felt I was providing in my writing.

I am working on bringing that light back to this space. Even if nobody reads it, it is a light for me.


Thank you,
Erica