Breath is a key, a powerful one, one that spans through all the earthly dimensions, through our body, our emotions, our thoughts, and even our spirit. In the body it touches the nervous system, the circulation, the muscle tension, and the energertic body. The fluids all respond with oxygen uptake and exhaust. It expands beyond the skin, literally breathing through the pores.
Breath is a barometer of exactly what is going on in your body, your emotions and your thoughts, your levels of tension, gross and subtle. There is movement and rhythm in it, a music over time, a dance through the body(s). Breath can be read like a book. The words are written on the arrangements of tension through the bodies. Where do we hold our breath? In subtle ways through the bodies, in all the ways that flow is held, guided, reflected and redirected, the words of the moment through the breath are written. One can read the condition of the whole self from the patterns in the breath. There is vast information in every pulse of inbreath, outbreath and pause, the lengths, the pace, the holding patterns, the level of tension and relaxation, the movement in time.
Take the "shoulds" off the breath. Become intimate with your own rhythm. Come to the breath as an unknown lover, letting it reveal itself in every moment. Open to her, in all her shyness, elusiveness, beauty and contortion.
You don’t have to control her. She is completely devoted to you. She strokes you with every pulse. She can be allowed to guide herself through her deep attunement to you, her desire to allow you to unfold into greater health. She can be allowed to take the reigns if you can release the carriage to her. She will be your ship that floats you safely through the storms. You can come to trust your experience to cradle you through each passing breath and into the next. She is your anchor and your teacher, able to keep you tuned to the present moment, and safe to witness all that arises.