BREATHE
If I could tell someone, who is going through difficulties, just one thing, it would be to

BREATHE.

In the year 2000, which BTW sounds so futuristic yet is now the past, I breathed a lot.

I also cried a lot.

I began listening to the one Spanish radio channel because all the others kept playing 

somebody-done-somebody-wrong songs,

 or songs that brought memories up in my head like Shania Twain's

"You're The One".

I would be at a stoplight, crying in my car, and I knew that the person in the Honda next to me might be thinking in their southern head, “Bless her heart. I bet her cat just died or her mom, dad, husband . . . "” They'd be right, in a sense. My marriage had died, and I was grieving. So I decided to only listen to the upbeat rhythms of espanol which I could let kookaracha through my heart without effect. I could pretend that they were singing about spicy dishes or dancing in the streets even though they were probably covering the same relationship break-ups.

 

Denial was the name of my new best friend.

At any rate, when the tears would begin to well up in the corner of my eyes while watching a movie in the theater, I realized that if I took a slow, deep breath and let it out slowly that the tears in my eyes would recede. A few more slow breaths and I could sit there and not make a complete fool of myself crying out loud. I began using this technique at the very onset of a thought of a tear and it would work even better. The bags under my eyes could begin to recede. 

You might be going through something right now that makes T.V. watching, Hallmark commercials, puppies, and life, in general, bring on a wave of emotion to which I am saying,

breathe. 

When you feel the emotional tsunami coming , take a slow, calculated breath and let it out slowly.

Tell yourself,

breathe,

and keep breathing. If you talk to yourself you'll realize that there is a daughter, a son, a cat . . . who

needs
you
 to

breathe

even though you just want to jump off the nearest Empire State Building. That's messy.

Don't do it.

KEEP BREATHING

I am learning that the moment I wake up in the morning is a good time to do just that and I've added 'praying for others'. If you wake up in the morning and start praying or thinking of others rather than "poor little me", it will help you get your mind off yourself. Give twenty dollars out of your wallet, purse, pant's pocket to that person carrying a cardboard sign at the corner of the busy street you drive by and be thankful it's not you 'cause in this economy, it very well could be any one of us out there begging to live.

If they want to

keep breathing,

you should too.

As long as you keep breathing there's the chance that you will wake up one morning and the sun will be shining and everything you've ever wanted is right there in front of your eyes. You're worth it.

Don't give up.

BREATHE

© nancy 8.28.2009