Imagine you are standing in the most pristine forest clearing. You swallow a nice dose of nutrients with your lungs. Phhhhmmmm. You breathe in. Oxygen is sucked into your lungs, then moves to your blood, then to your cells. This includes the nerves, heightening your sensitivity. You begin to feel your nerves registering signals...
You breathe in, and delicious oxygen moves to the tips of your fingers. Whatever thoughts are streaming in your mind seem less
important than your breath, which courses through your arteries, delivering fresh produce to every single cell.
Your parasympathetic nerve system activates. A straight spine allows better communication between your brain and body. You keep breathing. Gulping in forest air. Any feeling that throbs or settles within you is fine.
You savor its flavor, whether it is rage, or bliss, or
relaxation.
Your hands are suspended in air. You can feel them as
breath meets nerves, meets flesh, meets bone. You pretend to feel the bone, if you can’t.
Tingling: it can be blood rushing, it can be nerve static. You turn your awareness to your
wrists.
And listening to your breathing: you find its rhythm, maybe even
music in its pulse.
You breathe into your mouth and jaw. Stretching out your face, contorting its muscles into expressions you would never make in public, that would scare the children, that feel fantastic.
You continue to breathe in oxygen that converts into energy, and is then released as carbon dioxide and other biological exhaust fumes that are delicacies to trees.
Your feet are planted, embraced by the ground. You are almost breathing in the Earth through your toes. You inhale a stew of cedar, oak and pine. You can hear rustling a few feet away, birds greeting the afternoon, feel a warm sun cushioning the back of your neck. Everything is serene, and you keep breathing...
