Remedy for a Crowded World, by Rita Lang, Zen Yoga Director of instructor programs

Remedy for a Crowded World

by Rita Lang

Originally Published in Aspire Magazine November/December 2007

For most of us, waiting in traffic, standing in line, being crowded together shoulder to shoulder is part of our daily experience. Just to navigate down the sidewalk of a city street should probably be preceded by lessons in pedestrianism, for safety’s sake.

It’s certainly stating the obvious to say we are physically crammed in. But, let’s look deeper. Ever Google your own name? Try it, you’ll feel like you are peeking in on someone else’s life, only everyone else is, too. Our external perimeters are more often than not encroached upon, and internally there is a structure in place that automatically shares our personal “facts,” be they accurate or not, with anyone feeling curious that day. Whom we associate with, what interests we have, can all be readily observed by the trail we leave on our computers and cell phones. You could track me, and then I could track you tracking me, but the good news is that most of us have better things to do. However, the residual sentiment underlying all this is one of claustrophobia, a sense of being closed in on all sides. No wonder there are so many people experiencing the proverbial “short fuse.” Seems like we just can’t catch our breath.

Or, can we?

The breath is what keeps us alive, the one thing we cannot last more than minutes without. And yet, we treat it so lightly, both physically and figuratively. We don’t think about it, unless we notice the sensation of not getting enough, or that we just can’t seem to “catch it.” We humans get a little mixed up sometimes. We major on the minor things in life and that which is most vital to our existence is left to autopilot. Let’s let go of, for just a moment, the notion of some new pill, or even a food choice waiting for us out there to finally make us feel whole, energized, and alive. Let’s work with what each of us has already been given, only let’s try using it as if we mean it.

BREATHE- Right Now! I mean REALLY breathe! Fill up every cell of your being with the food it’s really looking for. It’s beautiful; calorie and fat free, and with some effort even pollution free! Now that you are coming alive, notice what is happening. Do you feel a sense of opening, clearing, or creation of space within you? See how large you can make this sensation become. It started in your belly; you brought it up to your chest. How about down your legs and out your arms? Can you take it all the way to your toes and fingertips? Do you have to contain it? What if it shot out like beams of white light from your toes and fingertips? It could, or it may be more subtle for you. Perhaps the breath fills you up and tingles like cold running water, a mountain stream with tributaries into your limbs.

And don’t forget your exhale. Contracting into the exhale brings a great sense of letting go, all of it, not just the carbon dioxide, but your tensions and troubles with it. And then, ironically, that contraction opens up an even greater capacity for spaciousness in the body. It is the flow of the rhythmic dance, of push and pull, give and take, the greater the capacity to let go, the more room to receive; yin and yang.

Now that you have worked with a few breaths, try expanding on this concept. Take your body into a simple stretch, directing the breath into the space as you physically open it, releasing restriction. As you systematically travel through the body this way, you will notice a sense of deep relaxation.

For a visual clue consider the balloon. What is it without air blown into it? It is dull and without form, waiting to embody itself fully. Blow breath into it and what an amazing transformation. It now appears to have life, dancing around, excited to bop from one spot to another, its color clear and bright. With the new-found space created within it, it is capable of moving about with a gentle, graceful flow.

And so it is with us.

At this point, we may not be able to control the way in which our crowded living conditions have closed in upon us, but we do have total control of our inner sense of spaciousness. When we feed our cells with the breath, more than just our bodies are affected. Even more importantly, our minds and spirits open up. The spaciousness shifts our perception. Our living conditions may have remained the same, but we interact with them from a calmer, peaceful, roomier place. We have not only caught our breath, we are now functioning at a higher level, where we sense our creative juices flowing once more. We are ready to rub shoulders with our neighbor in such a way that we share our more mindful state of being, bringing peace to one another instead of fear and anxiety.

It’s all a breath away!

If you are interested in learning more about stretching with the breath, perhaps you would enjoy being guided through this process. Zen Yoga has produced a DVD entitled: The Zen Yoga Daily Warm-Up which offers a twenty-minute program for just such purposes. For more in-depth study, also consider the recently published book Zen Yoga: A Path to Enlightenment through Breathing, Movement and Meditation. www.artofzenyoga.com