Respiration as regeneration
A meditation, affirmations, and a poem
Respiration - the source of energy that lets us farm and dance and speak. The breath of plants gives life to animals and the breath of animals gives life to plants. My breath is your breath, your breath is mine. It’s the great poem of give and take, of reciprocity that animates the world.
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass p. 344.
Dear enchantable ones,
Regeneration is a theme of my summer, and I have been thinking and practicing a lot with respiration as regeneration - a regenerative and reciprocal cycle we participate in and can witness in every given moment.
Through the breath we can remember that we breathe in community.
Through the breath we can remember our interbeing.
Through the breath we can witness the cyclical, reciprocal nature of everything.
Meditation, affirmations, and poetry are all central to my practice of living, and today I wanted to offer you a few creations for inspiration and support.
My lines of flight this week have taken me back to some of my own writing, inspired by a conversation with one of my students who asked if I often go back to my past writing. I don’t - but I keep everything, and this question made me wonder if I should go back to my older writing more often. I have every journal I have written in since I was 15 (which is many journals at this point!). Even traveling to Costa Rica, I brought some treasured notebooks just in case I needed them.
This week as I was doing some end-of-year cleaning of my desk at work, I uncovered some old notecards that made the trek to Costa Rica (writing quotes on notecards was how I first learned to do research in middle school, and it is still a method I love). One of which contained the quote from Frederique Apffel-Marglin which I referenced (and was searching for!) last week:
And another was the Robin Wall Kimmerer quote above. Many of the quotes were from Braiding Sweetgrass, and I was so happy to find them:
This took me to another old notebook (which I had to remove from my desk last year because it was being eaten by ants), in which I keep favorite quotes and lists, and included the Aurora Levins Morales poem V’ahavta, which includes the lines:
When you inhale and when you exhale
Breathe the possibility of another world
Into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body
Until it shines with hope.
Then imagine more.
-Aurora Levins Morales, V’ahavta
Meditation
The book also included this meditation I wrote with one stanza inspired by this poem. It is not dated, but it would have been written around the time I wrote my dissertation, circa 2021/2022. It resonated so much with what I have been writing about lately, that it felt like something I wanted to share with you this week, so I recorded it. It is slightly edited for this moment (including the title - it was untitled, but it is very much about regeneration). It is short and sweet. I invite you to take 5 minutes for this meditation on regeneration. I hope you enjoy it!
Meditation Transcript:
Breathing in I am aware of my breath.
I am aware that my breath connects me to the cosmos, the infinite web of relations streaming through me through this one breath.
I sense the breath.
I feel the breath moving through my whole body, nourishing every cell.
I feel my whole body through the sensations of my breathing and sitting.
I feel my body connected with the land.
I feel the place where I am sitting, and I imagine roots, tendrils of connection spiraling into the earth.
I am the land breathing.
My body is composed of the earth, is nourished by the earth, and will return to the earth.
I am connected. I am rooted. I am grounded.
Breathing in, my breath travels up my spine to the crown of my head and opens up.
I breathe in stardust, moonlight, creativity, and inspiration.
I breathe in the entire cosmos.
I sense that I am but a tiny speck in the great infinite unfolding, touching my sense of wonder and awe.
I am a vessel and channel for universal life force to flow through.
With each breath, life is flowing through me, and I flow with life.
Breathing in, I bring awareness to my heart.
With each breath, I am giving and receiving.
Each breath is a reminder of my reciprocity with all of life around me.
Breathing in, I breathe in possibilities.
I breathe in the possibility of another world into the trillions of cells of my being.
Breathing out, I shine with hope.
I shine this hope out into the world.
I grow brighter and brighter with possibilities, and I imagine more.
With each inhale, I regenerate myself.
With each exhale, I contribute to the regeneration of the life around me.
Each cycle of breath, a regeneration.
Affirmations
Another little treasure I found within was this list of affirmations from the same era:
I want to create a life that serves to proliferate and regenerate life within me and around me.
I am a creative channel for life force.
I allow life to move through me.
I am a channel for magic, delight, and pleasure.
I attune myself to the magical creative force that is life itself.
I make my life a work of art for peace, beauty, delight, and joy.
I refuse to live any other way.
I align the structures of my life with my desires.
I choose how I want to live.
I am a brilliant and prolific singer, writer, and scholar.
My life is a work of art, a love song to be alive.
I trust in life to provide for me as I keep showing up.
I live in abundance and beauty.
I align myself with life and love.
I allow life and creativity to flow through me.
I dedicate myself to cultivating peace, love, justice, beauty, and joy.
I am the earth, acting with the earth.
I shape change1 with life, alongside life, in collaboration and partnership with life.
I am me and I am more than me. I am soil and stardust.
I am a magical being who nourishes peace, love, joy, and creativity in myself and in the world.
Written a few years ago, it was beautiful to feel into how I have been living into these, and how they continue to be a beacon of aspiration for my life.
What affirmations do you want to live into?
What affirmations can you gift yourself?
What affirmations do you most need to hear right now?
How can you affirm yourself?
A closing poem on respiration as regeneration
My breath flows through me.
Please allow me
to be
In flow with all of life
Not holding back
Not clinging
Not grasping.
I allow life to flow through me
In and out
Ebb and flow
Give and receive
With each breath
Community weaving.
I will be off this week, regenerating myself at Rancho Margot regenerative farm. More to come on that, I am sure.
Here’s to our mutual flourishing. I love you!
With love and care,
Stephanie
adrienne maree brown