2020: The Year of the Breath

Photo by Motoki Tonn @motoki

Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you? Literally. Perhaps your feet slipped and you suddenly found yourself on your backside against the hard ice, or you unsuccessfully tried to jump off the highest point of a moving swing when you were a kid? 

Have you ever had a breathtaking experience? Maybe by the sweeping view at the top of a mountain ridge, a celestial sunset over the ocean, or an especially passionate lover’s kiss?

Have you ever lost your breath? Could have been from an unexpected panic brought on by public speaking or an impromptu 100-meter sprint with your 9-year old in a challenge to see who can get to the car first. (It’s been a couple decades since your high school track & field days!)

Unless it is suddenly interrupted (e.g. holding our nose underwater or suffering from a sinus infection), our breath is something many of us largely take for granted. 

Take a breath right now. Inhale deeply. Exhale completely. 

We now have apps on our smartphones to remind us to voluntarily, consciously, and mindfully engage this simple act, which the vast majority of the time happens involuntarily, automatically, and mindlessly. From a neuroscience perspective, we are beginning to recognize the importance of the breath and its ability to both calm us down and energize us, to refresh and sustain us, to connect us to the present moment while preparing us for whatever comes next. The yogis refer to it as “life force energy” (pranayama). Even DJ D-Nice, in his much-appreciated gift to Instagram users through Club Quarantine, reminds us to “Let it breathe.”

The word respire (respiration), comes from the latin word spirare, to breathe. It is also the root of similarly sounding words like inspire (to breathe into), aspire (to breathe toward), and conspire (to breathe with). It is related to the latin word spiritu, meaning spirit, which literally translates to “breath of god.” (Enough of the etymology lesson!)

Lately, the breath has gotten a lot of press. 2020 seems to be the year of the breath, or perhaps more accurately, lack thereof. 

The slogan, “I can’t breathe” was painted on signs in capital letters and chanted through crowds at nationwide protests. Those were the three haunting words, uttered by George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis. The suffocation and public murder of Floyd brought us face-to-face with a tragic, harsh, and undeniable reminder of the persistent racial injustices, abuse of power, and systemic racism in our nation, “the land of the free.”

That particular event, though far from being an isolated one, coincided incidentally in the era of COVID-19. The global pandemic has affected millions of people across the world who have contracted the virus and struggled for breath. The treatment in severe cases includes being placed on ventilators, forcing breath into their bodies. People with COVID have described the experience of trying to breathe as “being held underwater” or “like cement pushing on (your) chest.” Gasping for air. Grasping for life. The mere thought of it evokes a sense of panic. People have lost their lives, their loved ones, their livelihoods. 

With its elections, protests, and threats to our health, 2020 has rocked our lives. Our sense of physical and psychological safety has been severely compromised as we struggle to adapt and define our “new normal.” In reflecting on this year, we can’t help but think of that often overlooked luxury of the breath. The ability to inhale and exhale with ease. We think about those who are deprived of that simple ability and unable to take in the oxygen necessary to sustain life. We think about those who have been unable to breathe in another sense, because there is a knee (literally or metaphorically) on their neck. People who have been unable to live freely— free from fear, free from persecution, free from oppression.

The ability to breathe has become synonymous with the ability to be free, the ability to be alive. There have been a handful of times in my life when I deliberately breathed in as deeply as my lungs would allow. Sitting at midnight in the Piazza San Marco in Venice on a cool September evening, the smell of my newborn daughter’s soft, fuzzy head, the view from New Mexico’s Wheeler Mountain Peak following an arduous hike to the top. 

There are times in life we want to inhale, to absorb, to hold a moment in our body’s memory. May the coming year, be such an opportunity. If you have the ability to take a deep breath, do so now. That very breath signifies our aliveness, our civil rights, our freedoms, our loved ones, our ability to work and move through the world with relative ease. May we commit to not taking any of it for granted, as we are changed by this epic year, and undoubtedly our future for years to come. 

May you breathe abundantly and peacefully in 2021!

Happy New Year!