The sixth in our ten-part series, An Espresso of Breath – exploring the still moments between inhale and exhale, between sip and soul.
Of Peace
Breathe out now.
Let it go – the clench, the tension, the tightness in between your ribs and inside your sternum. You are not this. Empty all the way out, fully and completely. Surrender softly to your exhale, as you whisper inside yourself that you are made for peace – inside of this moment and the next.
Breathe in now.
Be slightly more patient and significantly gentler than the last time. Just let the air coming into your belly rise – easy and true. This moment is the little transport of arrival – inside of your body, into this moment, and down into your inner being – your home place, your anchor.
“Conscious breathing is my anchor.” Thich Nhat Hanh
And, what of the anchor of inner peace? Peace is an inside job. Breathing in this very moment is your most powerful tool. And, breathing while you brew? The best of all worlds.
We, you, are embodied through breath. Your breath brings you home to your body – anchors you. Breathe out now. Breathe in now. Notice that while your brain goes wildly from past, to future, and all over the place again– your body is ever in the present. Your body lives in this moment, this now – the place where breath and being unite.
Here, too, in this unity, inner peace is found – not ever in a focus on what was or the angst of what may come. Reflect on an espresso maker gooey and stuck in last weeks brew – reusing the same beans and grind, or a pour-over getting ahead of itself and chaotically dripping everywhere. Stuck in it’s past or speeding to it’s future. Well, that’s no good brew at all.
Inner peace. It, too, isn’t found in the ‘stuck’ of the past, or the ‘chase’ to he future. It is only found in what is. Each moment is. Every breath is. Your body is. And, here, in the reunion of the three – this is it – where inner peace finds its way back home to you and lives on.
Breathe out now.
Empty. Surrender. Just let it all be as it is. And, now, listen. Hear peace echo, calling to you.
Breathe in now.
Receive. Remember. Reconcile.
Of peace: breathe until you remember it. Breathe until it remembers you.
In Breath and Being, Heidi
— Written by Heidi M. Weiker, Sister, Storyteller, and Voice of Stillness at Espresso Momenti