Prepent 5774: Day 2, Catch Your Breath

Journey into the High Holidays with Amichai Lau-Lavie, founder of Storahtelling and the spiritual leader of Lab/Shul. It’s a daily dose of inspiration to get you focused and ready for the new year, featuring daily intentions, simple tasks, and tools for living better.

Catch your breath.

Bad breath can be an issue, but bad breathing gets priority on the Prepent fix-it list. Day one of this journey was about observing body weight, today is about the weightlessness that keeps us alive—though sometimes just barely.

I spent many years not breathing correctly, which resulted in shortness of breath and other related tensions. Even after yoga classes and meditation retreats—and countless other situations in which I was instructed to simply ‘take a deep breath’—I never quite figured out a consistent way to achieve better breathing.

As it turns out, a lot of us forget what we learned as children and aren’t getting enough oxygen into our bodies and brains. (Here’s a helpful TED talk on why that happens, and how it can be avoided.) A wake-up call a few months ago jolted me into action, and these days, with voice lessons and bike rides, I am slowly learning how to rewire my breathing patterns. I try to pause several times a day and take a few deep breaths—it’s so simple, and so easy to ignore.

The Sabbath descends this evening—the first one of this journey—and it’s a time to pause, unwind, unplug, exhale. Take a break, and catch your breath.

I commit to a daily minute of conscious breathing (here’s an easy guide). Care to share your mindful breathing tips?

Follow along with the Scroll’s daily Prepent series here.