Are you practicing gratitude during your breathing time? Here’s a way to deepen your experience. Prostrate yourself.

By now, you likely know that I am uncomfortable in hot weather. I’ve never been in such hot weather as this summer in North Dakota! Whew. Well, it lifted. I was so grateful that I prostrated myself and gave thanks. It was a spontaneous act, done a bit tongue-in-cheek. As I went down I was smiling, amused to have come up with such an odd way to express my delight with a fresh day.

But once I was face-down on the floor, everything changed. I felt profoundly humbled, and completely grateful. Time slowed. I felt as though I was now aligned with my rightful place in the order of things. As I stood up, I knew in a new way that living is a sacred act.

Now I prostrate myself and surrender to gratitude most days after my breathing time.

Try it. When you’re done with your 15 minutes of breathing, go to the floor. Lie face down, offer yourself to gratitude, allow yourself to be realigned by it.

Then write to me and tell me about it.

Breathing and Metabolism

A friend called. She is reading a book called The Slow Down Diet, and she wanted to tell me what it says about breathing. Here’s what she passed on to me. Daily stress has an adverse effect on metabolism. If you will pause and simply breathe for JUST ONE MINUTE before eating, your entire digestive system will be brought into alignment, your metabolism will function most efficiently, and you will generally benefit more from the food you eat.

Remember issues #27 #28 and Conscious Eating? Remember the grandmother who’d been imprisoned by the Nazi’s? She was pregnant, remember? Have you been practicing conscious eating? If not, go back and read those issues. Then return to conscious eating by breathing for one minute before you eat. How many breaths in one minute? Three or four? It is easily done.

Do you eat on the run, standing at the kitchen counter, driving in the car? So be it. Still, pause and breathe for one minute. Do you eat at the table with your family? Invite them to join you in taking a few breaths before you dig in. Do you eat at cafes with friends or colleagues? Take your minute to breathe. Your companions may want to know what you’re doing and why, then you can invite them to join the Breath and Water Club!

Try it for a week. Then write and let us know what you found.

Many of you got a good laugh from the last newsletter, Practice what you Preach!

How easy it is for us to ignore what we know and go on living our lives in the old way — the old, learned ways of behaving and thinking. Take conscious eating. We know it makes a difference, and we may do it for a few days, but then we return to the old way, to the oft-trod path. But if you can recognize that you’re on the old path, then you can move to the new one. No need to castigate yourself for falling onto the old way. After all, you’re just being human. Simply recognize that you know a different way to think or act, and do it. Then pat yourself on the back. Give yourself a gold star. And send me a note!