Welcome your inhale as you would a lovely and important guest, almost a very powerful guest, be humble in the intake, welcoming the arrival of this extremely critical input to your body. Why I find air to be so powerful is that it is abundant, but so necessary, we take it for granted, each breath , but what if there was no air. Air is again indiscriminating. It is at the same time touching all entities in this universe, every bird, every dead body, every water body, the purest of places, the not so purest of places.

It is witness to the best of deeds and the worst of actions, but it is there, everywhere, without judgement. It is the present, present everywhere at the same time. It is accepting the good and the bad, the opposites and the extremes, all at the same time and connecting them, feeding them, being witness to them. Every inhale brings into us this huge collection of everything in this universe, we are breathing in so much, the scale of this is just unimaginable, and yet it is so easily and abundantly available, that we don’t even think about it. The small is the large. The sense of Negative Capability (as John Keats would say) or disinterestedness as the Gita says. Accepting all, everything, around you without judgement, with a kind of disinterest, without getting attached to it , without grasping it, loving it. That is what every inhale brings into us.

Let the exhale be the courteous goodbye that you would say to the same guest. Be thankful for this visit. Be humble in your dependency on this visit. Accept the strength of the visitor. Surrender yourselves to this visitor, and this will lead you to discover a new connection with this visitor, a connection of your inner strength. Being humble and surrendering does not mean that you are weak or insignificant, but rather the giving up of any ego and resistance shows the infinite strength that you have to trust , to be ready to change, to give in and not give up.

Let the breath be very comfortable, as you would expect an auspicious visit to be. The body has to be really accepting and comfortable, really welcoming and relaxed and then it will feel the pleasure and new strength that comes from this connection with the universe. The innermost part of you, your gut, your mooladhara connected with eternity, everything in the present, and hence the past and the future as well. One infinite connection that lasts throughout everything.