Nurse Wisdom from the ICU at OHSU (4.11.19)

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski

“Dude, you’ve been holding your breath for 23 days. Exhale. Breathe. You have to breathe. Breathing doesn’t make the storm go away. Slow, deep breaths are the anchor in the storm until the storm passes. Holding your breath creates a tightness in your chest and shoulders and keeps you trapped in your anxiety and fear. Put your hand on your heart. Take three deep, slow breaths. Come back to your heart. Your body. Your breath. Your power. Come back to you. Your loved one needs you to be grounded so that in the midst of machines, alarms, pokes, procedures, they see peace in your eyes and feel the calmness of your heart.”
We are breathed into life. Breathing deeply is aligning ourselves with the creative, healing force that lies within and flows through and between us.
I hadn’t even realized I had been holding my breath for three weeks. Today I exhale and take a deep breath. I breathe deeply and slowly today not because the storm has passed but as an anchor in the storm until it passes. I breathe deeply today to align myself with the One who breathed and continues to breathe us into life. I breathe deeply today that Love might have room to breathe. In this room where fear desires to reign, I breathe deeply today for all of us filling the room with the Love that leaves no room for fear.
John O’Donohue wrote, “Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.”
#spaciouschristianity #spirituality #ohsu