Before the lungs breathe, the cells breathe. In through the cell membranes nourishment is absorbed. Out from the cell membranes, excess and toxicity are expelled. The balance of this ever-present taking in and letting go underlies our health.
To experience the quiet rhythm of the cells, the mind must quiet. One’s focus must drop beneath the sensations of the more superficial autonomic rhythms of the body’s organs; the noisy activities of the heart and lungs. In being with the cells, external respiration slows. To sense a oneness with the trillions of cells that makeup the internal landscape of our bodies, our consciousness expands. Engaging in cellular breathing becomes a meditation through which arises an awareness of the vast ocean within (how much of us is made up of water/fluid?), and our connectedness to the oceanic origins of life on earth.
The cells’ vital, repeated pattern of expansion and contraction produces vibratory ripples through the body’s larger fluid system. Proper functionality as well as disturbances are projected through a fluid map and can be felt, not intuitively, but palpably, through keen, quiet internal observation. Thus, bringing the cellular breath to areas of physical pain in the body has healing potential via the restoration of consciousness (vibratory nature awareness) to compromised cells in the area. In practice, this exercise can reveal forms that depict shapes of tension and restriction as well as directed movement patterns indicating healthy flow by way of felt and visualized images. Using this somatic tool of concentrating the cellular breath in areas of pain, can also reveal interrelationships of body parts related to or involved in the body’s felt manifestation of tension/stress. These relationships are not, however, necessarily indicative of cause and effect.
From a sensory perspective the body’s trillions of cells, present within the sweeping, gel-like net of the body’s interstitial fluid, emerged in my consciousness represented by the analogy of stars suspended in an endless expanse of galactic sky — their repeated cellular breath pattern, a soft twinkle generating life-sustaining energy. Besides, I’ve heard we’re made of stardust.
Thank you Cara H. for practicing and questioning Cellular Breathing with me and Thank You to Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen’s Body-Mind Centering approach for the inspiration and foundation knowledge.