Ocean Breath

The ocean breathes. And so do you. And tonight, they are the same.

Find your breath. Do not change it yet. Just find it. The in and the out. The rise and fall. Already there, already happening, whether you noticed or not. You have been breathing all of this without managing it, which is one of the most extraordinary things the body does. It breathes itself.

Now imagine the ocean. Whatever version of the ocean your mind holds most clearly. The smell of it coming first, salt and depth and the distinctive organic richness of water that has been circulating for billions of years. Then the sound. The swell moving in from open water and arriving at the shore. The full sound of it building and then the white sound of breaking and then the pull of the retreat.

Match your breath to the wave.

The wave lifts. Builds. Rises toward its peak. As you breathe in, let that be the rising. Let the in-breath be the building of the wave, the gathering of water into height. Feel your chest rise. The belly fill. The breath reaching its highest point the way the wave reaches its tallest before it curves and breaks.

At the top of the breath, the crest. A moment at the height before the movement changes direction. Hold it gently. Just for a beat.

Then the out-breath. The wave breaks. The white water runs up the shore. The breath releases, forward and fully, all the way out. You can hear the water in the breath if you let it. The exhalation as the tide retreating over smooth stones, the sound of air and the sound of water making the same gesture.

In again. The next wave building offshore, that invisible gathering, the deep swell rising from the ocean floor, coming toward the shore. Your breath rising with it. Belly first, then chest. The slow full filling.

And out. The wave breaks. The shore accepts it. The breath completes.

This is not a technique you are being asked to perform correctly. This is simply breathing in the company of something that has been doing it longer than you have. The ocean has been breathing its tides for as long as there has been ocean. The rhythm is older than life. And the body, which emerged from the ocean at some ancestral moment, recognises it.

Continue. Each wave a breath. Each breath a wave. The shore is always ready to receive it. The ocean is always ready to gather the next one.

In. The swell. The rise. The height.

Out. The break. The rush. The retreat.

In.

Out.

The ocean breathes you as much as you breathe the ocean.

You are the same wave. The same water. The same tide.

In.

Out.

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