breathe love in, breathe love out
Sometimes, a little goes a long way. Atomic actions can create some of the most profound effects. A great example of this truth can be found in our breathing.
Previously, from my meditations at a Buddhist center that I visited many years ago, along with the various guided meditations that I have practiced online, I learned and practiced the notion of breathing positivity in and breathing negative feelings out. Breathing white air of goodness in, and breathing black smoke of bad thoughts and emotions out. Breathing love in, breathing fear out. Breathing confidence in, breathing stress and anxiety out.
Earlier this year in January, I participated in Home — A 30-Day Yoga Journey created by Adriene Mishler from Yoga with Adriene. As I went through this month-long program and did more yoga regularly in the evenings, something grasped my attention and curiosity. I realized a simple process that Adriene repeated in her videos. She consistently guided to “breathe lots of love in, and breathe lots of love out.” I found this interesting and actually quite challenging at times. I realized that I had to let go of my internal barriers to receive and give away love.
Love is omnipresent like air; it’s always there within us and around us. It’s in the sunshine, the trees, the breeze, the rain, the earth. We only perceive our friends, family, pets, and people and things that we like as reservoirs of love. But if we elevate ourselves and look from a spiritual perspective, we’ll discover that love is everywhere and we don’t need to think of a person, place or thing to experience love. In simple words, we can open ourselves to love anytime and anywhere.
If we choose, we can all become conduits of love and keep it flowing in and out. We can use its magic to enrich both our lives and others’. We can breathe love into our bodies and our hearts, and let it heal us and eliminate any pain and negativity within us. We can breathe love out into our surroundings and the people around us, and let it pour into our everyday life through our actions and interactions.
As Osho beautifully explains in his diary The Open Door, “Love is always new. It never becomes old because it is non-accumulative, non-hoarding. It knows no past; it is always fresh, as fresh as dewdrops. It lives moment to moment, it is atomic. It has no continuity, it knows no tradition. Each moment it dies and each moment it is born again. It is like breath: you breathe in, you breathe out; again you breathe in and you breathe out. You don’t hoard it inside. If you hoard the breath you will die because it will become stale. So is the case with love — it is breathing; each moment it renews itself. So whenever one gets stuck in love, life loses all significance. And that’s what is happening to people: the mind is so dominant that it even influences the heart and makes it possessive!”
He further guides, “So remember to be in love with existence! And let love be like breathing. Breathe in, breathe out, but let it be love coming in, going out. By and by with each breath you create that magic of love. Make it a meditation: when you breathe out, just feel that you are pouring your love into existence; when you breathe in, existence is pouring its love into you. Soon you will see that the quality of your breath is changing. That’s why in India we call it prana, life, it’s not just breathing, it is not just oxygen. It’s something else — the very life itself.”