 How shall we live, when the world turns upside down?
This is the question that everyone I know is asking, in one way or another, often from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep. The other day, In a quiet moment when it was just warm enough to curl up on the sofa on the porch, I gazed out at the low, golden light filtering through the winter branches, and whispered this question into the thickening silence. A quiet, relaxed voice somewhere down in my heart answered slowly, a single word ringing on each breath like the sound of a bell: “Be." "Here." Now.” (My heart was clearly more concerned with impact than originality.) “What shall I do,” the anxious voice in my skull quickly jumped in. “Let go of what you cannot do, and do what you came here to do,” the voice in my heart responded. “But what about … “ the anxious voice began. “Do what you came here to do,” the voice in my heart said, more firmly. “You have today. You came here for a reason. This is the only world you have. This is the only life you have, right now, the only opportunity to give the gift you came here to give. Those who seek to destroy the world in their quest for power are doing what they think they came here to do. Do no less. Do what you came here to do.” “What if I don’t know what I came here to do?” “You do know what you came here to do. Your deepest desire, your simplest joy, and the needs each moment presents, will always tell you. Guess, if you have to. Take one simple action, receive the feedback, and do the next thing.” “What if I fail?” “Let go of doing it perfectly – do the little bit that is yours to do, right here, right now.” “What if I can’t?” “You can. There is always something loving that can be done.” “I’m scared.” “You are safe enough, in the ways that matter most, right now – and you are loved more than you can imagine.” The lump in my throat began to soften, and a deep full breath rushed into my lungs. Since that day, I return to these words often. I practice self-compassion; these are hard times, and it helps to acknowledge the truth that we’re all in it together. I curate my exposure to news and social media, focusing on the things I can do something about. I refrain from reactions as best I can, and respond with small good acts: a letter here, a call there, a small donation, and random acts of kindness. Most of all, though, I do what I came here to do: I enjoy my life, I share the privilege I have, I tend the people I’m blessed to serve every day, and I create spaces for safe and sacred gatherings. I try not to miss opportunities to love – including loving myself. I don’t know where we’re going, but I’m grateful for my life, and the opportunity to do what I came here for – even though I’ve probably glimpsed only a little of that, after all these years. I know it’s hard right now. Don’t give up. Don’t believe you’re alone. Do what you came here to do. And if you feel called, please join me for one of our online or in-person events this year. There’s a power in coming together that makes miracles possible. With all my love, Hunter When people ask what breathwork can really do for them, my answer is simple and direct ... how we breathe is how we feel, and how we feel is how we live! Breathwork has the power to change how we feel and how we live. Recently, MysticMag asked me to elaborate a little more on that. Here is my response:
“How we breathe is how we feel, and how we feel is how we live! The breath connects and regulates every aspect of our being, including our nervous system, cardiopulmonary system, metabolism, and immune system – and in turn, it directly reflects all of those systems. As a trauma and recovery coach, I have spent the last thirty years watching people breathe, and I have witnessed firsthand the powerful relationship between breathing, emotions, and physical vitality. It’s not possible to shut down any of our emotions without shutting down our very experience of being alive. Every time we encounter an uncomfortable emotion, we go into a neurophysiological threat response, triggering agitation, aggression, freezing, or collapse, all of which are immediately reflected in the breath; we begin breathing rapidly or forcefully, or we begin to breathe in a shallow, constricted, or lethargic manner. These patterns become chronic, and we wonder why our sense of aliveness and vitality are so diminished. Over time, these patterns give rise to stress-related illnesses, chronic pain, and autoimmune responses. Fortunately, we aren’t doomed to live out these patterns! Conscious Breathing can help us to become aware of our dysfunctional breathing patterns, understand the underlying emotional motivations for those patterns, unwind those coping responses in our nervous systems, develop new and more effective strategies, and reclaim our capacity to meet our lives with an open, healthy breath, an open heart, and a profound sense of curiosity, joy, and vitality.” If you'd like to read a few other breathworkers offering their perspectives on the same question, check it out at https://www.mysticmag.com/psychic-reading/experts-breathwork-2/
 The Joyful Work of Staying Sane
How do we stay sane amidst the catastrophic changes of our times? Will we choose become smaller, harder, and more isolated in our efforts to protect ourselves? Or, instead, will we use the challenges of our times as an invitation to grow ourselves, to soften into the flow of the world, and to reach beyond ourselves into deeper relationship with the world? These are the most important questions of our time, and they rise up constantly in my work with individuals and groups all over the world, in my family and my close circles of friends. I believe that our answers to these questions determine not only the quality of our own lives, but the lives of the people we love and the lives of the people who come after us, because our answers to these questions shape our very way of being in the world – which is, in the end, our greatest legacy to posterity ...  How did this happen – again? Here were two men – both dear friends of mine for many years – that had connected through a dating/hook-up app over the weekend – both calling me to complain about their time together. I knew them to both be soulful, heartfelt, spiritual men with a yearning for real connection – and yet, some mysterious force kept them from feeling any connection. What they longed for was right in front of them – but completely inaccessible. The tragic and incredibly funny thing about this absurd situation was, I knew I wasn’t any different.
How many of us have wasted minutes, hours, even days in the hunt for love, or even a little connection? Endlessly perfecting ourselves, presenting ourselves, creating profiles and checking the apps on our phone, only to find ourselves somehow incapable of really enjoying our lives or the people in them? Somehow, the very things we're doing to meet other people make us (and them!) less available for real connection and intimacy -- and before we know it, the app habit has become an addiction of its own ... One of the most life-changing pieces of advice I ever received came from one of my elders as we relaxed on an ancient stone wall, watching a thin stream of pilgrims ascend the majestic pyramid in front of us. I had just absentmindedly given voice to a question that had been troubling me for months. My teacher cracked a wide smile, elbowed me gently, and said, "You might want to read the ingredients on that question -- they might be poisonous!"
Over the years, my teacher's simple remark became one of the most powerful tools in my medicine bag, helping me to recognize the toxic brew of judgments, assumptions, and expectations woven through the most seemingly important and persistent questions in my life. For example, take a question like, "why can't I just make up my mind and change this situation." The question assumes that I can't make up my mind, that the problem in my life is a failure to make up my mind, that something is wrong with me and figuring out what is broken will allow me to fix it. The question assumes that the situation must be changed, and I am the one with the power and right to change it. We all have questions like this, and can waste extraordinary amounts of time repeating them over and over, each time making ourselves feel more helpless and disempowered ...
I was talking recently with a client of mine, a brilliant, successful man. After twenty years of building a successful medical practice, Gene found himself haunted by a sense of spiritual emptiness and a longing to touch people's lives in a deeper way. “I just don't know how to go about this," he said. "I feel like I need someone to tell me which way to turn, a teacher of some kind. I've been buying books, and taking workshops for a couple of years now, but nothing seems to fit." The longing in his voice was almost palpable ...
You have probably heard the old cliches, even in New Age circles: life is a school, and we are here to learn lessons; life will repeat the lessons until we get them; we graduate from one lesson to the next, and one life to the next.
Have you ever wondered what life was before there were schools? Children, of course, still grew up. They discovered their bodies, the people around them, the world stretching out from horizon to horizon and the stars wheeling overhead. They adapted and evolved and enjoyed the miraculous cascade of experiences the world presented. But life was not a school and we were not here to learn lessons ... |
