By Jean Tinder

B R E A T H E
You’ve heard that word a thousand times by now. You’ve seen it on the printed page, on your computer screen, and chased it around the jungles of your mind. But what does it really mean to you? How often do you take a breath or two – and then forget about it for another day, its reminder lost in the myriad of other things you’re supposed to be doing as well?

I have heard amazing stories of how breathing can literally change reality, and I’ve lived a few myself. I’ll share this one. Several years ago I was living in a new area and had taken a delivery job to feed myself and my 18 month old daughter. It was winter time and one day I pulled into a snowy driveway far up in the mountains to make a delivery. On my way out I managed to back my car right into the ditch and was instantly and thoroughly stuck, with a rear wheel far down in the ditch and a front wheel spinning in the air. I left the car running, got out to assess the situation, and at that moment my baby daughter, strapped securely into her car seat, pushed the door lock button with her foot! In a flash my reality had drastically changed!

There I was – standing in the snow without a coat, locked out of my very stuck car, my daughter securely locked inside – out in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no idea what to do. The two or three houses I could see in the distance appeared to have no one home and I hadn’t seen another car on the road for miles. Perhaps I could break a window to get back in the car but I had no way to dig under the snow for a rock.

All sorts of scenarios began to race through my mind and none of them were very appealing. Then I remembered how Tobias always said to breathe, no matter what was happening, because it would change things. So, standing in the snow by the car and trying not to panic, I took several deep, cold, desperate breaths. If breathing ever helped anything, now was the time, though it sure didn’t seem very practical at the moment!

Within seconds I noticed my daughter reaching with her foot, stretching as far as she could and trying to PULL the lock button, something she had NEVER done before! But with the button almost out of reach of her little shoes I couldn’t see how it could possibly help, and anyway, how to you pull a button? It would have been hard enough to do with my own shoes! But she persisted, having turned her attention from me to that button, and suddenly the locks clicked! Dumbfounded, I yanked the door open, grabbed the keys and put them safely in my pocket.

Amazed at how this part of the situation had suddenly solved itself, I went around to the back wheel that was stuck deep in the ditch. In the snow that had buried everything almost 12 inches deep, there just happened to appear a big rock on the surface! I pushed it under the wheel, got back in the car, took another breath and put it in gear. It moved effortlessly forward, the front wheel touched the ground and I was free!

Less then one minute before, the situation had looked hopeless and with high potential for disaster. But everything changed when I chose to breathe. It wasn’t that I was trying to “breathe in a solution” or mentally tell the baby what to do, for I had zero idea for how to get myself out of this. It was just a letting go, opening up and surrendering to whatever solution was already there.

Since that moment I have never doubted that things which seem to be “only energy” and not really very practical is very, very real and that the “power” of the breath is grander than all the force and effort in the world. We used to say that prayer changes things. The truth is that our breath changes things.

And the most wondrous thing is that when we breathe for our own solutions, we’re setting that potential for everyone else as well. Do you ever wonder how things can possibly work out when it appears that so much has gone wrong in the world? You only need to breathe.

…when you breathe through the waves of fear that unpredictably wash over you, it creates a wave of peace that might wash through someone else’s fear tomorrow.

…when you breathe with the sadness that suddenly clouds your day, it sends a breeze of love that helps to dry the tears of another broken heart.

…when you breathe in total trust as everything around you seems to be in chaos and collapse, you create a beacon of hope that shines through the panic in someone else’s world.

…when your heart is pounding and your mind is racing, and still you choose to take a deep conscious breath, a ripple of sanity expands out into a consciousness gone mad. (And all this time you thought YOU were the crazy one!)

…when there is drama all around you, or even shouting in your face, and you simply allow it and breathe, it will begin to fizzle out like a fire that has lost its heat.

…when you breathe through yet another letting go – saying goodbye to a lover, a friend, a pet, your home, your money or your dreams – and trust the creation of your soul, there is one more sovereign human walking on earth, forging the path of Ascension for those who follow.

…and when you stop for a moment, give yourself a tender hug and breathe the deepest love for who you are in this exact moment, it sends a glimmer of love and hope across the universe the likes of which have never been seen before.

Dear Shaumbra, never, ever doubt that you make a difference with every breath you take.