#37
April 13, 2010
“Walking on water wasn’t built in a day.”
Jack Kerouac
(This is actually a Breath and Water Club Newsletter. But it put me in mind of Tenacity Notes from July 28, 2009, so I included it here.)
Why are we doing this?
Do you remember why we began this Breath and Water Club?
This is from my December, 2004 invitation to form a club: “Some of you may remember the following suggestion I gave in my classes: Drink 8 glasses of water a day and breathe for 15 minutes twice a day. Do that for 6 months and your life will change in ways you never dreamed of.”
Practice is the means and the end
Breathing and drinking water every day is a good enough end in itself. But for us, it is more than that. It is also a means. A means to what end? That’s the mystery — it’s a means to an end that will only be known when it arrives.
Some of you found that the daily practice of Breath and Water eliminated long held physical aches and pains. Some found that they’d finally gotten pregnant, or gotten their master’s degree. Some were surprised to find a desire that led them to a new career when they thought they were preparing for retirement. Some found unimagined ease in this or that relationship. Some found that life wasn’t as onerous as they’d thought. What have you found?
Practice prepares the ground. Practice creates the foundation.
The daily practice of Breath and Water creates a foundation from which your life can take off.
Ray Charles went to his studio every day to practice the piano. What did he practice? He practiced the scales. He practiced the basics. Did he play the scales when he performed? No, of course not. But his daily practice of the basics prepared the ground, so that when he performed, he could soar.
That’s why we’re doing this.
We’re practicing Breath and Water for it’s own sake, because it’s good for us. But mostly, we’re practicing Breath and Water because it prepares the ground so that, in our lives, we can soar.
Breathe: 15 minutes of intentional breathing twice a day.
Drink: 8 glasses of water a day.