Faith Filled Connections and Encouragement For Life
Should we breeze or breathe through the summer?
Summertime. It breezes right by! Don’t blink or you’ll miss it!
In today’s culture, it’s extremely easy for us to simply go, go, go, and breeze right by special moments with our loved ones in the summer as we consume ourselves with doing the next adventure.
Articles we read as we plan for summer encourage us to add more and more and more. Here’s one that gives great tips on how to, “Breeze Through Your Summer Trips” (example: Breeze Through Your Summer Trips – The Group Travel Leader | Group Tour and Travel Destinations, Attractions & More).
What would happen if we took time to intentionally breathe? Would we enjoy our moments together more? Would we find ourselves snapping at each other less in the long line for the amusement park ride?
Science and Scripture agree on the importance of breath. Check it out:
According to Science, intentionally taking a deep breath can immediately help to reset your nervous system. This enables your air to flow into your body, helps calm your nerves, and brings down your stress and anxiety levels. Furthermore, it resets your mind to be able to focus, make better decisions, and lower your pain. Check out: Proper Breathing Brings Better Health – Scientific American for some more great insight and connections to this topic.
It’s no surprise that God’s Word confirms the need for us to take time to breathe and even reassures us that we can receive new life from God himself (Job 33:4) when we seek Him in those moments. Breath is often mentioned in powerful ways with deep-held meaning in the Old and New Testaments. Here are just a few examples:
- Breathing life into Adam and life into all of us (Genesis 2:7; Isaiah 42:5)
- Creating the whole World and Universe (Psalm 33:6)
- Old Testament moments with prophets speaking His Word (Ezekiel 37: 5 & 9)
- How He gave His Word to bring about the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16,17)
- How Jesus gave his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 20: 19 – 22)
Noticing a pattern here of how important breath is to God?
I was often reminded of this fact, not only by scripture but also from a garden sign my grandmother had that read, “Breathe in God’s Spirit. . . Exhale God’s love.“
Below is a breathing exercise to help bring this all together in a meaningful way.
This is a great exercise to do with your loved ones before a meal, as part of a morning or bedtime routine, or in the car as you travel.
Breathe with the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13
(Breathe in slowly) Our Father who art in heaven,
(Breathe out slowly) hallowed be Your name,
(Breathe in slowly) Your kingdom come, Your will be done,
(Breathe out slowly) on earth as it is in heaven.
(Breathe in slowly) Give us this day our daily bread.
(Breathe out slowly) And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
(Breathe in slowly) And lead us not into temptation,
(Breathe out slowly) but deliver us from the evil one.
(Breathe in slowly) for Yours is the kingdom and power and the glory
(Breathe out slowly) forever and ever. Amen!
In my years working as a houseparent to many young children, the best calming method in my toolbox had to do with the idea of intentionally taking a breath.
First, I would ask them to count to three with me while we breathed in and then out slowly together. This would greatly help a student reset their mind, body, and spirit when they were overwhelmed by their emotions.
Next, I would explain to them that when they would get so overwhelmed with their emotions, their mind would shut down and forget to tell them to breathe, which in turn, affected everything else. By doing this exercise together, we could hit the reset button not only on their brain to be able to think again, but on their whole body.
After a time, the students would come to me and ask me to do the exercise with them instead of me prompting them. They were becoming self-aware of when they needed to hit the reset button.
For the ones that couldn’t agree to the exercise, found it silly or annoying or uncomfortable . . . it broke my heart. I knew they were missing out on a great tool. For some, it was because they never experienced calm or how to calm down. They felt safer in the chaos, and it wasn’t the right time to help them understand and use this helpful tool.
When we had our first child, I found myself naturally using it often. When I was rocking him to sleep, doing his nighttime routine or helping him feel connected to me when he was upset. I quickly realized that even as an infant he responded very well to this practice, and I wanted to intentionally teach him how to use this technique for himself from birth.
As I held him, I would breathe into the count of three and exhale slowly. It was amazing how much it helped him as an infant to experience me leading by example. Developing this into a more consistent healthy habit for myself also kept me in a good frame of mind for parenting through the challenges that the infant stage brought.
Now, it is encouraging to see that he’s able to do it on his own now as a toddler when he finds himself unable to calm down. Whether it’s during play, being told no, feeling overwhelmed or overtired. Once he does the slow breath in and out (whether prompted by me or on his own), everything goes a lot better for all of us.
He enjoys it the most when I use the exhaled breath to gently breathe on him like a cool breeze. The adorable smiles and giggles that follow bring joy to all of us! Now anytime I start counting to three, he grins, takes a breath, and blows it at me. Making us both laugh. Laughter is the best medicine.
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