We spent two weeks of Monday Meditations learning about the various forms of breath prayer and how to practice them. In those blogs, the breath prayer was practiced in stillness, sitting in meditation and prayer. As I wrote last week, Stillness can be found in movement.
Today I want to talk about incorporating the Breath Prayer into your movement. Because the breath prayer is in rhythm with your in-breaths and out-breaths, it can easily be incorporated into movement with intention.
I walk each morning between 2-4 miles depending upon what my body can do that day. As I struggle with long-term side effects from Lyme Disease and experience relapses, I allow my body to tell me what I can walk. Breath Prayer helps me listen to both my body and the Sacred at the same time. It helps me practice patience with my body during those times when I want to walk 4 miles and my body can only do 2.
Here is what I do on my morning walks. Before I leave my house, I send an intention to be present with the Presence that is walking with me. Then I use the breath prayer like I would in Centering Prayer. When my mind wanders, I use the breath prayer to bring me back to center, to mind-heart stillness. I use just my breath, my inward and outward breath until I feel myself becoming fully present again with my body mind heart spirit soul and the Presence that is around me. Once I’m present again, I release my awareness from my breath and allow my awareness to be with the Sacred, with Mother Earth, with all that is around me.
I remember one hike in the White Mountains. My father and I were hiking the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire heading toward the Vermont border. We were in the deep woods when Stillness fell around me. I noticed a path that left the AT to the left. It was drawing me toward it. I naturally turned, no thought, just following the Spirit’s lead. As I walked that path toward a peninsula in a small lake, the world around me shifted. I felt like I left behind the ordinary world and had been granted a moment across the veil into non-ordinary Sacred reality. Stillness fell deep. Sound fell away. Light shifted and played off the water. There I was, standing on the edge of a beautiful lake with the Holy. I stood there in deep gratitude seeing the world through different eyes – the eyes of the Holy. Beauty surrounded me. Love filled my heart. Joy overflowed. My exhausted body was energized. There was no worry, no anxiety, only Peace, the peace that passes understanding.
I don’t know how long in ordinary time I stood there. It felt long. Yet I know that Kairos time, God’s time, is not bound to this world. One earthly second can be an eternity in the Sacred’s timing. I do know that moment changed me. As I write this, the vividness of this Gift is quite present in my heart body and soul.
This mystical moment was gifted to me by the Sacred, pure Gift. I was open to receiving this gift because I was present in my movement. I hiked into the natural world to allow ordinary life to drop away, to seek the Presence of the Sacred in the wild. What a gift I was given that day!
That gift can be experienced in the city. It does not need to be out in the middle of the forest. Just the other day, I had a Kairos moment walking through Chestnut Hill, running errands nonetheless. Something shifted in the energy around me. All of a sudden I felt like, although I was standing at a corner of Germantown Ave, I was in a different world. I felt safe. I felt alone and yet not alone. I felt time stop, Kairos begin. I breathed into it and felt that Presence as I waited for the light to change. The Presence of the Sacred stayed with me as I ran my errand, the entire way back to my home. It is our intention that invites the Sacred to be present with us. It is when we are in the present moment with hearts open that the Sacred can descend upon us whether we are in stillness or movement. Each time, it is pure Gift, a gift to be grateful for.
I encourage you, as you leave your house, to set an intention to being fully present. When you notice your mind spinning with all the things you have to do, follow your breath back to the present moment. Allow yourself to be aware that the Sacred is always with you. Feel the Holy’s Presence and lean into it as you walk, allowing Spirit to guide you. Be open to where that will take you…
