The Breath That Connects

As you may have gathered by reading my posts, I tend to think in metaphors and word images. This well suits my experiment with mindfulness and the efforts to record my journey in blog format.

Of course brain health — focus, retention, and calm — are the objective of my practice… especially since I intend to teach these skills to my sweet public school kiddos and not in a monastery, contemplation yurt, or parochial setting. My kiddos need these brain-friendly skills.

However…

In my personal practice, I have found great joy in revelations resulting from my mindfulness practice.

This one in particular deals with the concept of breath, breathing, respiration.

Between my first degree in English, my second degree in English, and my six years of teaching high school English, I think I’ve read and studied John Milton’s Paradise Lost more than just about anyone, outside of Milton-specific college professors. To me, one of the most beautiful metaphors Milton penned is that of Adam receiving life in the form of divine breath.

In the poem, the angel Raphael explains to a curious Adam, or first human, that God “inspired” the “breath of Life” into his nostrils… which is how Adam became alive.

This mirrors the creation narrative from Milton’s own Christian faith.

…God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. -Genesis 2:7

Inspired

This is a 14th century word that emerges from Late Latin: it actually means in breathed.

Spirare — breath — and it’s close relative, spiritus — the animating or vital principle in man and animals, or life force — elevate this lovely word into a trancendant image. Read-Milton’s representation or interpretation of humankind’s beginning was that God blew spirit into Adam.

Breath=Spirit

Wow.

Sit with that imagery for a minute.

Think of all the other words this metaphor paints in richer detail:

• aspire (aspired, aspiring, aspiration)- ad-to, spirare to breathe

The word picture here is “to breathe or pant after” something. When you add the notion of spiritus, you get almost a sense of spiritual calling.

For example, I aspire to teach the skills of mindfulness to students and staff who cannot otherwise hold to a calm, kind temperament in our frenetic school environment.

• conspire (conspiracy, conspirators)- com-together, spirare-to breathe

Word picture-How powerful this concept becomes when you think of co-conspirators as breathing or plotting together, in spirit (spiritus).

If educators conspire to stop and breathe before acting out of stress, fear, or other heightened stimuli, we can co-create a learning environment that allows room for trial and error.

And perhaps the one closest to my heart during my season of mindfulness —

• respire (respiration, respiratory system)- re-again, spirare-to breathe

Word picture-In relation to spiritus, respiration becomes the breathing in and out of the life force shared by all living things.

Be still. Respire. Connect with all that breathes.

Then, and only then, proceed.

Beautiful.