Indigenous Elder Shares ‘Breath Of Beingness’ Technique To Help ‘Calm A Frantic Mind’ During Troubling Times
Close your eyes and be with your breath.
Krakenimages.com | Shutterstock Indigenous elders worldwide came together to share their ancestral wisdom in their upcoming book, "Sacred Ceremony For A Sacred Earth." The authors, Aniwa’s Council of Elders, comprises some of the most renowned Indigenous Wisdom Keepers, including Grandmother LánéSaán Moonwalker.
Moonwalker is a part of the Yoeme and Apache people. She is an artist, oracle, healer, licensed minister, spiritual teacher, and environmental guardian. In the book, Moonwalker shares a powerful and sacred breathing technique.
Grandmother LánéSaán Moonwalker shares the ‘Breath of Beingness’ technique to help ‘calm a frantic mind’ during troubling times.
Breathwork is incredibly important to many Indigenous peoples, Moonwalker included. "Many Indigenous groups feel that [our breath] is one of the primary foundational pieces that is important for us to be conscious of, aware of, and to use as a form of meditation and prayer," she explained.
Photo by Ursula Vari taken at Aniwa Gathering
"The invitation is to close your eyes. Just be with your breath. Listen to your breath," Moonwalker advised before beginning her explanation of the technique. "If your mind wanders or your emotions wander, thank them very much and return to listening to your breath."
Moonwalker provided instructions for each breath.
"With the first breath, I would like you to bring your thoughts, your emotions, your beingness, out of the past and into the now," she instructed. " We do that with the hand movement — taking our left hand and bringing it to our heart center."
With your second breath, bring your beingness that is in the future to the present. To do so, bring your right hand to your heart.
"With your next breath, give thanks to your body, your beingness, for this breath," Moonwalker continued. "Be aware of it. Allow it to become gentler and slower."
Continue your gratitude into your fourth breath. Thank the air around you, which Moonwalker described as "the blanket surrounding our beloved shared Mother, Hom Eh."
When you take your next breath, "breathe in the blanket of nurturance and support you share with all of Hom Eh’s children." That doesn't just include the humans on the earth, but everything from the flies, fish, and birds to the rocks, soil, and trees.
"With the next breath, give thanks to this life-giving blanket of air," Moonwalker went on. "This is the breath of sacred beingness."
On the exhale of your seventh breath, send your love and gratitude to everything around you and all that exists. "Understand that you are sharing back with the greater whole your love and gratitude as a part of the greater whole," Moonwalker advised.
Photo by Ursula Vari taken at Aniwa Gathering
"With the next breath in, as this energy comes and nurtures you, the Energies-and-Power-That-Moves-All is breathing you. They breathe you, and you breathe them. Engage with this exchange," she instructed. "Each moment, each breath, you have this opportunity to be in alignment and whole with the All." As you do so, have your left palm open with the back of your right hand on top of it, both palms facing toward you.
"With each breath, you have the opportunity to breathe and be breathed by the sacred powers that move all throughout all time. All space. Now and always," Moonwalker wrote. "We are whole. The circle is complete. We are as one, with love and gratitude."
This practice highlights the 'aliveness of everything that is.'
"Everything in the universe, everything lives. In that, it has a spirit," Moonwalker explained.
When we utilize breathing techniques, like the Breath of Beingness, we connect with the earth and the plants. "The plants are exchanging their breath with us," she wrote.
The air and wind, which she referred to as "Earth Mother’s breath," then carries the thoughts and prayers into "the greater whole." Negative thoughts, however, will also be carried, so it's important to embrace gratitude and positivity when using this technique.
"We emphasize when working at this process that it is done in a prayerful place of gratitude and love. Because when we’re angry and expressing it, that also gets carried by the wind and affects all around us. Then, it comes back to us," she explained. "When we express a blessed and loving energy through our breath, all is nurtured and supported, including ourselves."
Sylvia Ojeda is an author with a decade of experience writing novels and screenplays. She covers self-help, relationships, culture, and human interest topics.