Women Who Thrive, Change The World!

Posts tagged ‘Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath’

Women As A Pathway To The Sacred

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This picture along with the words caught my attention.  There has been so much written about the Divine Feminine, Goddess traditions and women’s empowerment.  It is not my purpose here to delve into  these important and very extensive areas as this post would be very, very long!

However, I was taken by the simplicity and power of this picture as well as the words.  Masculine acknowledging feminine awareness which is different from his.  His understanding that women do have “another system of knowledge” that a man may not possess in the same way.  An honoring if you will, and an invitation to bring this understanding and intuitive wisdom to the “counsel table” for all to benefit from.

It is time that this honoring and acknowledgement take place once again.  Our global, national, community and family well being depends on it!  We as women also need to accept the gifts that we posses, and be willing to use them in powerful, insightful,  and compassionate ways

Below you will find a video done by the BBC that takes us on a journey into ancient times.  This video explores a little-known ‘golden age’ for women, when historical characters such as the Empress Theodora in Byzantium, Wu Zetien in China (the Empress who called herself Emperor), the early women of Islam (2 of Mohammed’s wives) and Anglo-Saxon Hilda of Whitby, used the power of ancient traditions and new ideas about religion and philosophy to wield influence in what appeared to be a man’s world.

Women wielding their *power* in deepest human connection with/in the Divine.

We can gain understanding and inspiration from these women who were not willing to back down on using their innate sense of the much larger picture to create positive changes in a mostly male dominated world.   It was a pleasure to be introduced to these women who paved the way to the sacred of their times!

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WEBSITEwww.ResonanceWithLife.com

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.BreathingSpaces.net
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

Breath-Book-coverW2(3)Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview, Reviews and purchase links can be found here:
http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

We Have Come To Be Danced!

Last Friday night my body was a mass of whirling limbs, undulating pelvis, and open hearted movement.  Where was I?  At one of my favorite movement pastimes.  You see I, like you, have several favorite movement practices….among them swimming, yoga, making love, and ecstatic dance/contact improv.  The latter is what I was involved in a few days ago.

What is so outrageously refreshing about ecstatic dance is just what the poem below by Jewel Mathieson (thank you to Kimberly Beroset!) suggests quite powerfully.  There are no boundaries or constraints to adhere to.  The dance movement comes from deep within and in the moment.  By yourself in a room full of dancing, whirling, cavorting people….or in direct energetic contact with one or more others.  It is like finding out who you are within each breath of limb, organ, skin, and fluids.  It is taking the time to explore what is desiring and demanding to emerge next…while taking the risk of fully inhabiting that movement, sound, dance, emotion, relationship with self and/or other.

I have written here before that women too often apologize for everything, even their very existence.  My remedy for this has been to suggest that every time a woman wants to say ” I’m sorry” (though there are truly times when that is appropriate) she should instead say “I’m so sexy!” – or at least think it…and stop the apologies in their tracks, never to emerge unconsciously again!

The poem below embodies all of what I am speaking to here and as I slip a piece of luscious dark chocolate into my mouth I say to you……We HAVE come to be danced!  Let us not forget that for even one single moment!  See you on the dance floor of life!!

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.BreathingSpaces.net
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview and Reviews can be found here:
http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Yoga Woman – Creating A Scared “Time In”

Did you know that in the early history of yoga, and up until recently,  it was meant as a practice only for men?  That is hard to believe as the majority of students and teachers globally these days are women.  What first attracted me to the practice so many years ago now was the freedom to explore my body, mind, emotions and breath in a “time out”  – or better “time in” –  without the pressures of everyday life intruding.  Something women historically have had precious little time for.

Just today a video movie trailer came across my inbox (thank you Lynn Walker!) called YogaWoman.  I post it here because it makes a statement about what women can create when they become passionate about something.  Women have changed the entire make up of this ancient practice creating an embodied and grounded pathway to moments of nourishment, strengthening, nurturing, flow, expanded awareness, increased fluidity and flexibility, a modality for health and well being for all ages, genders, and races –  and for simply being with the breath in each moment.

As a student and teacher for many years now I still feel a thrill every time I step on the yoga mat and know that this time, this practice, is just for me!  Deep gratitude goes to the many men that have helped bring yoga to the Western shores….and a standing ovation goes to the women that have consistently expanded and grounded the practice in a way only a woman can.

If we can support each other in stepping into our individual expressions, such as has been done with the practice of yoga,  instead of competing with each other (or ourselves!), then we have not only come closer to embodying the authentic and honest expression of who we are, but have joined other women in a collaboration of empowerment and joyous creation.

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT: 

www.BreathingSpaces.net
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

Website:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Book: http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Happy Birth-Day to Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath!

Happy Birth-Day to the long awaited book that has many favorite posts from the BreathingSpaces blog within the pages!! This is what has taken my time away from posting here on WildlyFreeWoman.  My heart is wide open as I deliver Our Daily Breath into your hands, hearts and souls. My deepest wish is that this book will be of service to those who read it and that it will encourage pauses in life to simply be with the breath and the sacredness of this life we have been given.

As women we sometimes hold back on our creative imaginings and they never manifest out into the world in physical form.  I know that I have been that “hold-back” woman for a long time….and also know that there is always a great loss to others, and the very planet we live upon, when we do not share our wisdom, feelings, stories, art – actually the deepest parts of our unique being.  I have now declared that there are absolutely no more reasons to NOT do and be what my purpose is this lifetime around – so here you have my very first book in print to “delight, rest and reflect in”.

Here is some advance praise as well as links where you can purchase one of three options – Downloadable with beautiful formatting and the ability to print out each week’s focus for a daily reminder; e-book for Kindle, iPad, etc; and soft cover spiral bound to place in your library as a treasured resource.  For a Sneak Preview go to: http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

A Road-Map to Living an Inspired Life!

Richard Cawte, Ph.D.

Give Us this Day our Daily Breath is so much more than just a book about breathing. The subtitle of this beautifully-crafted and elegant work sums up its difference from anything else that I have read on the subject: “Weekly Breathing Spaces to Delight, Rest and Reflect In”.

That says it all.

Life has become so hectic for so many of us, with so many things to do every day (and never enough time to do them!). In Give us this Day our Daily Breath, Gaye Abbott gives us a clear, easy-to-follow guide that helps us find places of calmness and deep ease from which the day can emerge in a fresh, vibrant way.

We tend to pay attention to peripheral things in our lives and yet so often the very thing that sustains us – the act of breathing – is something we barely pause to consider. What I love about this book is that it brings the act of breathing to the forefront, allowing the reader to explore his or her relationship with the world through the breath itself. It’s an inspired piece of writing, flowing from the heart.

Giving us weekly practices is a stroke of genius, because it makes it easy for the reader to experiment and adopt new ways of breathing bit-by-bit. That’s why I love the book so much. It’s more than just a book. It’s a road-map to living an in-spired life, a step-by-step manual that invites us to align ourselves with the rhythms of the natural world – and then shows us how.

Life throws up many challenges, but as Gaye says: “the breath is a tool to anchor you. Allow it to be the constant thread around which you weave your life.” Wonderful advice.

Truly a book to read, delight, rest and reflect in!

Richard Cawte, Ph.D., International Business & Author of the Natural Wealth Course, www.ResonanceWithLife.com

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Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath is a wise, graceful, kind and gently humorous guide to awakening more fully through weekly explorations of breath.
By relating the natural breathing rhythms to the cycle of the seasons, Gaye Abbott invites readers to reconnect with a sense of being at home on Earth and in our bodies. This fresh perspective combines with personal story and observation to offer valuable new insight into the healing and transformational power of breathing.

Lea Bayles, M.A., transformational coach, speaker and author, creator of the Replenish Your Soul series of guided meditations lea@leabayles.com, www.leabayles.com

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Leza Lowitz

Give Us this Day our Daily Breath is a wonderful book born from Gaye Abbott’s decades-long practice of yoga, meditation, awareness, mindfulness and joy, celebrating the breath each and every day like the gift and prayer that it is.   Inspirational, creative, healing and practical, Gaye offers insights, exercises and easy-to-follow practices that allow us to fully appreciate and embody this act of breathing and all it contains. Gaye writes, “When we come together with another life form, we share the breath in the air that surrounds us. We take of the same breath, so to speak. Down through the millennia this has continued. In fact, we are breathing and sharing the recycled air of the dinosaurs, the very first humans, the dolphins, and the trees…In many of the classes, workshops and retreats, I often have people sit back to back and feel their own breath first, then connect with the breath rhythm of the other without attempting to change theirs. Almost everyone noticed, in a short period of time, that the breath would synchronize and become one. 

Perhaps it was always one to begin with. Through this interconnected basic biological process we can feel each other, and with acute knowing understand what is within the other – even if we do not consciously acknowledge it. What if each one of us joined another – or others – in sharing a peaceful breath rhythm. Would the world change?” 

Yes it would, and with Gaye as our guide, it is bound to. And what a joyful and transformational journey it will be. Thank you Gaye for giving us this day our daily breath and reminding us of the incredible beauty, grace and power of this thing called breath that we too often take for granted!

Leza Lowitz, #1 bestselling Author of Yoga Heart: Lines on the Six Perfections www.lezalowitz.com

OFFERINGS: Downloadable (Instant PDF Download Below) with beautiful formatting and the ability to print out each week’s focus for a daily reminder OR through LuLu – e-book (EPub/Adobe, iPad, Nook, Kindle, etc); and soft cover spiral bound or regular soft bound to place in your library as a treasured resource!

PDF Instant Download – $9.97

E-book & Soft Cover Spiral Bound Versions

Also Available HERE

Ebook : – http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/daily-breath-ebook/18852025
Regular bound soft cover: – http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/our-daily-breath—paperback/18852066
Spiral/coil bound soft cover :-  http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/our-daily-breath—coil-bound/18852103

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath

ANNOUNCEMENT!!  I invite you to go to the Natural Wealth website to see a Sneak Preview of my upcoming book: Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath expected out in e-book and soft cover by 12/1/11!!  Go to the page Be Breathed – Our Daily Breath.

Would love your feedback as the book is not quite finished yet…and your comments would be most welcome!  Also check out the video that took me so many takes….and laugh along with me.

REMEMBER –  Laughter is a series of exhales expressed with uninhibited joy!

Thank you for taking the time to take a peak at the Sneak!

Gaye Abbott           Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath