If there is but one thing that I need the most when I am anxious, it is this.
Presence.
In depression, we need this.
Having someone safe alongside me in my fear.
- It is the parent holding a child’s hand as they go off to surgery.
- The advocate who sits beside you as you face a disciplinary tribunal at work
- It is the reassuring phone call from a friend when you are overwhelmed.
People quietly giving presence.
The knowing that you’re not alone, in my experience, cuts the fear in half.
A common unifying factor we all have is that we breathe.
The air that we breathe
Picture this.
There is a room, and it is filled with air breathing humans.
But in this room, in this time and place, you could smell the fear.
It was on everyone’s breathe.
Jesus enters the room.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
Peace be with you
As part of the worship service in the church I attend, we have a special time in the liturgy where we ‘Pass the peace’.
We get up from our seats and greet our neighbours by looking in their eyes, holding their hands if possible and saying the words ‘Peace be with you’, and they respond in the same way. Then you move on to the next person.
It’s a greeting, it’s a prayer, it’s a desire that all things fragmented in one’s life might come together in wholeness.
Jesus says it as a greeting. He shows them the identification card of his wounded hands and side.
He then reissues his greeting, ‘Peace be with you’ and gives them the directive to be like him in mission.
Then a curious action that John notes.
‘he breathed on them’
He breathed on them
I would have loved to have seen this. To have felt it.
Something of his resurrected body life moved out and into them.
Breath. A ‘puff’ to be correct.
I want to inhale that breath every day.
The same breath that gave the first of human creation life, is still in existence now.
We breathe in and we breathe out.
We take things into ourselves; we let them out.
Forgiveness is like that.
We take hurts and pains in and then we release the hurts and pains.
If we retain them, choose to hold on to the failures of ourselves and others, we become congested with the pollutants.
We breathe in. Take in the good and the bad.
We breathe out. Let out the waste.
Breathing
I breathe in your love, your presence, your forgiveness.
I breathe out the hurt, the pain, and that which I have been choosing to retain.
I breathe in.
I breathe out.
Breathing and anxiety
There is a connection between breathing and mental wellness.
When you are anxious, your breaths per minute can jump from 10 to 14 breaths per minute to being over 20 breaths per minute.
This is because your brain senses danger and prepares the body to either fight or flee.
Even thinking about future events can increase one’s breath rate.
We are on that swing in have been talking about in this series.
We hold ourselves out into the future. A little panic begins, and breathing increases.
You are in that room with friends. All of you have been traumatised by the events that happened in the last few days.
The bloodied crucifixion is powerfully etched into your brain.
You remember how you failed Jesus.
You fear you could be the next one nailed to a cross.
Your body is on high alert.
Jesus steps into the room, says, ‘Peace be with you’ and breathes on you.
You breathe in the very breath of Christ.
You carry this memory into every moment of your day.
Here is a little practice to do to
Breathing practice.
- Sit comfortably in a chair or lie on the floor
- Close your eyes. This will help you focus on your breath
- Focus your attention on your the rising and falling of your chest
- If you are able to breathe in through your nose
- Hold it for a few seconds
- Then release it out through your mouth
- Repeat
See yourself as one of those disciples of Jesus
Notice Jesus releasing a puff of breath out of his mouth.
It’s not forceful; it’s more like a fine, whispered, invisible flow of life.
Hear him say, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’
You breathe his breath into your lungs.
You hold it there.
You let it out as it has done its life giving work
You breathe in another breath
Then breathe it out.
This pattern continues
You form this into a daily prayer exercise.
Something good and peaceful grows in your life.
The swing that once used to swing out wildly into the future, where anxiety held its grip, becomes more centred, more grounded.
Breathe
Listen to Breathe by my friend Tim Page
Breathe out and breathe in
Even though you can’t win
For the game that you play
Will be over one day
And each breath that you drew
Will be meaningless too
But till then breathe out and breathe in
Breathe out and breathe in
“Don’t sweat the small”
Encompasses all
Of the challenges met
On the journey and yet
They have power that may
Take your breath away
So persist to breathe out and breathe in
Breathe out and breathe in
Perspective is gained
From a life that is stained
With events of the kind
The broaden the mind
So embrace it all
Both triumph and fall
And not cease to breathe out and breathe in
Breathe out and breathe in
Breathe out and breathe in
It’s the way that we win
As we face every day
And refuse to give way
To the trials that loom
And foreshadow doom
In defiance breathe out and breathe in
Breathe out and breathe in
Quotes to consider
Praise is the ‘breath’ which gives us life, because it is intimacy with God, an intimacy that grows through daily praise. …
Breathing is made up of two stages: inhaling, the intake of air, and exhaling, the letting out of air.
The spiritual life is fed, nourished, by prayer and is expressed outwardly through mission: inhaling and exhaling.
When we inhale, by prayer, we receive the fresh air of the Holy Spirit.
When exhaling this air, we announced Jesus Christ risen by the same Spirit.
No one can live without breathing.
It is the same for the Christian: without praise and mission there is not Christian life.
And with praise, worship.
We rarely speak about worship.
What do we do when we pray?
We ask things of God, we give thanks. …
But worshipping and adoring God is part of breathing — praise and worship. Pope FrancisEvery breath we draw is a gift of God’s love; every moment of existence is a grace. Thomas Merton
Are you breathing? Are you here? Did you just take a breath? Are you about to take another? Do you have a habit of regularly doing this? Gift. Gift. Gift. Whatever else has happened in your life—failure, pain, heartache, abuse, loss—the first thing that can be said about you is that you have received a gift. Rob Bell, How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living
Questions to answer
- What would it be like in that upper room and Jesus comes and breathes on you?
- Which quote above speaks to you the most? Why?
- What are you retaining that needs to be let go of?
Formation exercise
- For the next week, spend 5 minutes doing the breathing exercise above?
Read further
How to Grow the Practice of Stillness for your Mental Health
Barry Pearman
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
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