THE DIVINE BREATH
By Dr. Jon Repole, D.C., N.C. H.H.P.

What is the divine breath?

All too often we live our lives on autopilot acting as if we are automatons without having any real sense of control over our thoughts, words, and emotions. More importantly, however, we neglect to push the "PAUSE BUTTON" in an effort to put a slight space in between environmental stimulus and our internal responses. We believe that we are victims of the world and, thus, adhere to a pre-programmed set of reptilian responses or reflexes. This can be helpful in certain circumstances where we must learn to act quickly and prudently in the face of danger, for example. For most of our life, however, this knee-jerk response does not come from our highest, loving, and altruistic self especially when we are engaging with family, friends, and strangers in our day to day interactions.

When we take a brief "pause" and set an intention, we shift our nervous system away from the sympathetic (fight or flight response) and hand it over to the parasympathetic nervous system (the restful and calming part of our nervous system). In this way, the general stimulus (interactions with other, events, circumstances, etc.) will initiate a response that instead of coming from our reptilian, emotional and sympathetic pathways will, in turn, thwart our body's energies over to the parasympathetic nervous system which will allow for conscious control over our responses.

We can use the divine breath to initiate this "pause" allowing for more alignment and congruence of our authentic self to be expressed to everyone we come in contact with.

Take a moment and use this in every situation where you need to "ground" yourself such as before a presentation, when you are anxious, before interacting/meeting with others, before starting a conversation, your interactions with loved ones -- or in any circumstance where you want peace as the final outcome.

The Divine Breath instructions:

1. Take a thoughtful 7 second inhalation
2. Hold breath for 2 seconds
3. Exhale for a count of 8   
4. Take a large inhalation and "let go"
Now you will repeat the above with the following silent mantras/intentions:
5. On inhalation, "I breathe in the great sea of the divine into the drop of ocean of which I am part"
6. On exhalation, "I breathe out a kiss of this divine spark to everyone and everything in my immediate awareness and beyond
7. On inhalation, "I breathe in an acknowledgment of our interconnectedness"