Life is so dynamic.  It comes in waves.  You just have to trust.  Trust empowers everything – and gives us reverence, awe and wonder.  There is a spiritual connection – and “spirit” is breath from Latin.

Breathe – Engage – Guide – Sustain

These four words are an intentional focus on the spirit of Living School.  Breathing in is inspiration. I hope we all have time to breathe.  Intentional breathing is purposeful inspiration – taking control consciously.

Breathing has so many different forms:

• We unconsciously breathe – it just happens normally – it’s called eupnea.  There is no effort.
• We pant when we feel the need to suck in oxygen after an endurance – this is called hypernea. It is breathing with conscious effort. We breathe in deeply if we feel frustration before remonstration – often with pursed lips.
• Or we breathe in deeply when we reflect on something grief-laden and difficult. 
• Or we use diaphragmatic breathing before we play an instrument or sing.
• We puff when we are in the act of strenuous lifting – this shallow focused breathing is called costal breathing, where we use our intercostal muscles.
• We struggle for breath when we feel suffocated.
• We snore when we are sleeping, unconscious of the impact on others.

And, when we want to breathe for control and benefit, we can employ pursed-lip breathing.  Pursed lip breathing is a breathing exercise that helps you slow your breathing and inhale and exhale more air. You slowly inhale through your nose and gently exhale through pursed lips. Pursed lip breathing makes it easier to perform physical activities and reduces stress.

Breathe in through your nose for four beats.  Hold for four.  Breathe out through pursed lips for four. Rest for four.  This is box breathing – and it only takes a few ‘rounds’ to make a difference.  Breathing is inspirational and reduces stress when intentional makes us take control.

When I write a newsletter, I often start and find my mind typing words that are energised – and then I stop, I pause… I breathe in… and I reflect… and I think… nah, that’s not right.  I don’t want to share my words because they are not right.

I stop because I don’t wish to trigger some of you reading.  I realise what I am writing is forced by my own concerns.

I pause.  I have this emotional quotient that sums up what others might feel, what others might think of me: the person guiding this community.  I pause and I change tac.

This last term has required a lot of deep breathing in and pursed lip breathing.  We have had members of our community deal with the greatest challenges – the passing of life.  I struggle to find the words to console and find my emotional intelligence to know what I ‘should’ do to support personal grief, how I should communicate to others another person’s loss.  I have such reverence for human struggle – I try to empathise, but I know life is so personal, so how can I truly ‘know’ or ‘feel’ what another person ‘knows’ or ‘feels’?

As a community that states it deeply cares – I often struggle to fully unpack this statement.  I mean, DO we deeply care?  And what does care for another mean?  Can we care for everyone?  Do you truly care?

I know that we are all part of an interconnected network.  One that spreads out and reaches so many people in need.  And this is where my energy is directed – to care for others, to give unconditionally to others, and other things – to our future. 

This is what Bob Randall states is Kanyini.