Soul Food

Monthly Topic: The Breath
By Stephanie Kristal

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This section will offer a monthly topic related to nourishing and nurturing our inner life. Featured each week of that month will be simple yet universal meditations, inspirations or practices drawing upon different traditions, religions and paths that you can apply on a daily basis.

“A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible, it is necessary.” --Course In Miracles

In many languages, the same word for “breath, air and wind” is used as well for “vital energy, spirit, soul and life.” The animating principle of life is referred to in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Genesis as “neshemet ruach chayim” and in many Eastern traditions as “ki, chi, prana” translating to “the spirit of life within the breath.”

The breath is a universal experience and language of the soul. Focusing on the breath is to focus on the life force itself. It is a practice that reawakens us to our true nature as unique expressions of radiant energy and to our deep interconnection with the life force energy that exists within all other beings, in nature and within “all that is”. As we breathe, we draw from the vast reservoir of energy all around us and we are reminded of our relationship to Source.

The Practice
When you wake up in the morning, before beginning the activity of the day, take 3-5 minutes to breathe deeply without struggle or strain. Feel the breath like a slow ocean wave flowing in, flowing out.

As you inhale, draw from the universal reservoir of energy and as you do so, tune into the “spirit of life within the breath”. Feel vital life force energy flowing through you, “breathing you,” awakening you.

Notice how you are a unique expression of this radiant energy.

As you exhale, deeply relax. Feel yourself releasing, letting go, returning to the
Source - the universal source of energy – like a wave that arises from and then dissolves back into the sea.

Feel the peace that fills you as you experience the vibrancy and wholeness of your being and your deep interconnection with the vital life force energy all around you of which you are a part.

Let this practice open the doorway of your Soul and set the tone and pace for your day.

Stephanie Kristal, M.A. is a Hypnotherapist and Integrative Yoga Therapist with a private practice working with individuals and couples in Woodstock and Kingston, New York.