smiling with compassion…
breathing my way… to an alignment…
It’s interesting how good stuff can come your way, when you least expect it… or perhaps when one is aligning on some level.
This last week, i’ve been back to a particular breath practice called ‘hong sau’ or ‘hamsa’ meaning, in essence, ‘wild gander’, as a way to migrate back to our spiritual home or the true essence of who we truly are, as a being of light… It can also mean, ‘i am spirit’… or, ‘i, dissolving’… I was taught this breath practice many years ago and i love this process receiving much benefit.
It’s a beautiful + mindful way to simply observe my breath… I begin by turning my head to the left and forcefully exhale two quick breaths through my mouth, (symbolically letting go + dying to the ego-self), and then forward, (through the nose) as bringing new life, to begin to observe my breath naturally going in, chanting silently, ‘hong’… going out, chanting silently, ‘sau’ (saw)… in… out… in… out… simply watching + breathing… and when my dear monkey-mind thoughts pop up (and they do!)… to re-member, no judgement, don’t make my breath do anything… just return, observe + bring myself back to the breath… in… out… in… out…
When one practices this process regularly for a while, some cool stuff can show up or not… i have found that my being can just reside within spirit, i call, ‘riding the wave’… or one can come to a place of ‘no breath’… that’s a sweet place to reside…
Being one who hasn’t been sleeping well for a long, last while, this process also brings deep rest to the whole physical system… something of which i sooo appreciate.
Sometimes during, i can naturally veer off this process, to chanting silently as i breathe, ‘i love you little weaver, i am free’… ‘i love you little one, i am free’… etc… seems i’ve been guided to acknowledge my inner child.
It’s also interesting… i recently painted a simple watercolour that has 3 dots as a part and was kind of stumped with how to title it… didn’t think much of it actually and then,
Not long after today’s breath session, i was grateful that a poem-writing by Thich Nhat Hanh showed up from a friend’s feed on social media… Talk about divine timing—i had sudden awareness of how i’ve been, in essence, healing my inner child through my breath of spirit and now, a clear awareness of bringing compassion for myself including my parents, who passed away last year. Being adopted, i actually have two sets of parents; birth + adoptive… i’ve lost three of them with not knowing who my birth father is…
This awareness certainly made me smile! 😊 Thank you Thay… xo (((💜)))
smiling with compassion
breathing in, i see myself as a five-year-old child…
breathing out, i smile with compassion to the five-year-old child in me…
myself five years old… smiling with compassion…
breathing in, i see my father as a five-year-old child…
breathing out, i smile to that vulnerable five-year-old boy who was my father…
father, five years old… smiling with compassion…
breathing in, i see my mother as a five-year-old child…
breathing out, i smile to that wounded five-year-old girl who was my mother…
mother, five years old.. smiling with compassion…
—Thich Nhat Hanh, an excerpt from Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child
—watercolour, ‘smiling with compassion’ on 100% cotton finished on a 8x8-inch cradleboard by weaver x (((🩷)))
What a healing exercise. Thank you for sharing.🌹