Conscious breathing, which is a powerful meditation in its own right, will gradually put you in touch with the body…As soon as your habitual state changes from being out of the body and trapped in your mind to being in the body and present in the Now, your physical body will feel lighter, clearer, more alive.

-Opening quote, Day 266, Eckert Tolle, Meditations from the Mat:  Daily Reflection on the Path of Yoga

Day 266 – Anxiety and frustration, two most unwanted bed partners, have appeared at my door step.  It’s only Thursday, and I lacked steam on Tuesday.  I’ve missed a few mornings and evenings of meditation and crossfit; I’ve not slowed down, and this takes it’s toll.  Rolf writes:  “When we bring our attention to the breath, we are changing planes, moving from level of existence to another.”  It would be just dandy if I could reincarnate from the classroom teacher to a Buddha, but for now I’ll just try to do more breath work and meditation.

Since “our suffering is largely due to our imagined relationship to the past or to the future,” I settled into a mantra practice (Om Namah Shivaya).  As Rolf writes, by paying attention to my breathing, I am “consciously leaving the imagined world and entering the real.”  Anxiety and frustration are not real–though they feel so. The breath and mantra ground me, and I, indeed, become more light, more clear, and more alive.