Breathe, You Are Alive!

I’d like to share something from a book that is worth its weight in gold and then some: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace is Every Step.

Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, but his writings aren’t at all sectarian, nor do they contain lots of Buddhist inside-baseball jargon.  His style is plain and simple, and his compassion and friendliness comes through in everything he writes. His books are at once accessible and conversational.

The thing I found most valuable in Peace is Every Step is the technique of mindful breathing.  Nhat Hanh describes it in its simplest form:

As you breathe in, you say to yourself, “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.”  As you breathe out, say, “Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.”  Just that. You recognize your in-breath as an in-breath and your out-breath as an out-breath. […] As you practice, your breath will become peaceful and gentle, and your mind and body will also become peaceful and gentle.

You focus on your inhaling and exhaling to bring yourself away from past, future, imagination, etc., in order to be fully in the present moment.  It’s really an absurdly simple thing, but nonetheless I find it extremely beneficial.  I am often very caught up in my own thoughts, or sometimes I’m very caught up in no thoughts at all, and if I am lucky I remember this technique and it brings me back to myself fully.  As Nhat Hanh writes,

If we keep breathing in and out this way for a few minutes, we become quite refreshed.  We recover ourselves, and we can encounter the beautiful things around us in the present moment.

In my own experience I have found this to be true.

I hope to expound more on Nhat Hanh in later posts, but for now I hope I’ve at least piqued your interest about this great gift which that Buddhist monk has given me.