In a World of Disinformation, How to Find and Trust Your Own Rhythm

Photo credit: Zoltan Tasi

This week, three people sent me an article about Dr. Joseph Mercola, the multi-millionaire osteopath who began his practice in the Chicago area. Dr. Mercola is now considered the #1 spreader of vaccine disinformation worldwide. 

While I don’t weigh in on an individual’s decision to be vaccinated, I can’t help but notice the negativity that results from the spread of fear. 

As we turn to various sources for health advice and take sides against one another, we overlook a vital well of wisdom: our own bodies and intuition. 

This disconnection can be seen around us as a rise in depression, mental illness, anxiety, suicide, and more. How are we addressing these challenges? How are we empowering ourselves? In my healing practice, I find that some people have amazing self-care skills, and others have no idea where to start.

I wrote last month about rhythm: the circular rhythm of the breath and the rhythm of nature. In order to connect to each of these, it helps to look first at your individual rhythm. 

How are you feeling physically? Mentally? Spiritually?

How do you create the foundation of your inner life and how do you interact with the external world from that place? 

Rhythm has a connection to discipline. There’s a beat there, a constancy. The monks have an expression: the more trained the dog, the more freedom he has.

I have been working with finding my own rhythm in my daily practice. For a while I was intent on doing thirty minutes of WhaleBreathing a day. I was experiencing a lot of emotion, often sobbing my way through my practice. So I stopped to let my body catch up. 

When I began my practice again, I decided to allow my body to tell me how long to breathe. I do a minimum of five minutes because it takes that long to get the ego to surrender. That first three to five minutes my mind is racing, saying things like, ‘You don’t want to do this.’ Or, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ I listen and thank it, then continue breathing. Eventually, I cross the threshold into WhaleBreathing. It’s similar to meditation, a space of full consciousness and awareness, where I can witness what’s happening but also surrender to the moment. 

My discipline has been to show up for this daily breathing, but also to give myself permission to change the length of my practice depending on what my body is telling me. Some days are harder than others. I may have rushes of feeling, like anger or sadness, and I witness these with curiosity. Sometimes I have to say: It’s ok to feel. You’re safe. This is natural. 

I may need to process more than just my own energy. When this happens it feels a little like bringing a car to the garage for an oil change and finding out you need other repairs!

Thankfully, even three circular breaths can ground me and open my heart. I then have the space to step back and ask ‘What is this drama about and do I want to be affected by it?’ It’s my responsibility to do my inner work and love and forgive myself. When I can bring love back to me, the ripple effect is profound. This is how to affect the world. 

It takes a lot of courage to do this work. Every time I host a breath class I acknowledge the braveness of the souls who are gathered. Conversely, sometimes I encounter people who resist the breath. I see it as I’m talking to someone; if they seem out of whack, I go to their breath. I can see how the breath is stuck. 

I wonder, why wouldn’t anyone want to feel their feelings? Yet, how do we meet our Authentic Self? The tools to find a safe place and feel, a safe place to explore our souls and find out who we are, were never really given to us. This place takes a lot of courage and I’m so proud of each person who shows up and comes to meet themselves and their vulnerability through breath. 

We are entering a new paradigm, where a surge of feminine energy brings us back to being in our bodies and intuition, and it is time to surrender to spirit in the form of the breath. 

 It’s time for each of us to be our own authority of our bodies and let our voice sing our own song. As this happens and we connect, we become the place of wholeness through our rhythmic breathing. When this happens, a greater shift happens and we then allow our planet to feel the healing that needs to occur as we meet Harmony and Peace. 

Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment

And live each moment

With peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth,

And let it begin with me.