“The first thing we do and the last thing we do in our lives is breathe. Different emotions have different breathing patterns. Breathing forms the waves that carry the mind. When we are Aware that we have a challenge or our spirit is out of balance, we use the power of our breath to bring us back to equilibrium.” The wizard paused, took a puff of his long stem pipe and slowly exhaled a stream of sweet smelling smoke. Punctuating his point about breathing.
“When you’re angry you breathe a certain way. When you’re sad you breathe a sad breathing pattern, likewise when your happy, confident what ever the emotion each one has it’s own unique breathing pattern.”
“The trick, pardon the pun, is to use them the right time to change your energy.” The wizard pointed his pipe stem as to emphasise the point.
“For example if you are afraid your breathing will be very different from when you are confident. Slump your shoulders and breath rapidly.” Instructed the wizard.
The young warrior changed his posture drooping his head looking down, slumping his shoulders and began taking quick shallow breaths.
“How do you feel?” asked the wizard.
“Anxious.” replied the young warrior.
“O.K now straighten up your posture from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet and take a few deep breaths.” Said the wizard as he demonstrated this himself.
The young warrior followed the old wizards instructions, and as he straightened his posture and began breathing deeply, he felt the anxiety wash away more and more with each breath.
“Now how do you feel?” asked the wizard.
“More relaxed and centered” answered the young warrior.
“See, you changed your energy from a being anxious when you were stuck in an anxious breathing pattern, which by the way was feeding into your nervous mental state which made you more anxious which in turn fed into your breathing, creating this loop. By being Aware and taking Action you changed your Breath which rebalanced your energy.” Said the wizard.
“Is it as simple as that?” asked the young warrior.
“Sometimes.” answered the wizard. “But sometimes it takes a little more effort than that. But never underestimate the power of breath. When you breathe you absorb the very elements and atoms of the Universe. You breathe about 20,000 times a day. Something you do so much has a profound effect on your health and energy.”
“Breathing affects the mind and the mind affects the body. Conversely the body can affect the mind. Both can create a positive loop or a negative one, but when you are Aware you can keep them in balance and break free of these mental traps.” Stated the wizard as he relit the bowl of his pipe.
“But how is all of this going to help me slay that dragon? When are we going to get to that?” Impatiently asked the young warrior.
“Ah, follow me.” as the wizard rose from his chair and went outside.
They walked a short distance out of the wizards cabin to a large tree. The wizard instructed the young warrior to close his eyes and count to ten.
The young warrior let out a sigh, closed his eyes and began counting. “One, two, three, four….” with a little bit of impatient attitude he continued. “Nine, ten.” Then he felt an upward breeze whip past his face.
Then from above him he heard. “Open your eyes.” and to the young warriors surprise the wizard was high above him sitting comfortably on a tree branch. The wizard said “Jump up here and join me.”
“That’s impossible! I can’t levitate or fly like a wizard!” replied the young warrior.
“I didn’t fly or levitate. Jump up.” smiled the wizard.
“I can’t it’s too high!” said the young warrior.
“Then use the ladder on the other side of the tree like I did.” Laughed the wizard.
Sure enough as the young warrior looked, on the backside of the tree was a ladder leading up to the branch the wizard sat upon.
The young warrior shook his head and grumbled to himself as he climbed rung by rung up the ladder to the awaiting wizard who looked very smug and amused.
“You see..” started the wizard as the young warrior perched himself next to him. “You can’t always take shortcuts, especially with magic spells. It’s a step by step process. You have to climb each rung or step to get where you want to go. If you try to take a short cut you will most often fail and waste time, taking even longer.” said the wizard.
“You could have just told me that instead of having us climb trees.” said the young warrior.
“Well then you would have not appreciated the lesson I was trying to teach you. Simply telling you would have been kind of a shortcut because you weren’t ready to learn the lesson. Making you go through the process step by step opened your mind and made you ready to learn the lesson.” said the wizard.
“Now close your eyes again and count to ten.” instructed the wizard.
Closing his eyes once again the young warrior began to count. “One, two, three, four…”
Then he heard a loud “Thunk!” and when he opened his eyes he saw that the wizard had climbed down and knocked over the ladder.
“How am I supposed to get down?” asked the worried young warrior.
“Well you could take a shortcut and jump.” The wizard said with a laugh.
“Practice what I’ve taught you so far and you’ll figure it out.” The wizard laughed as he walked back to the cabin.
The young warriors face grew red with anger but then realized the lessons the old wizard taught him and began to calm himself by breathing. He felt the anger subside and then began tuning into his surroundings. He felt the gentle breeze caressing his skin, the song of the birds. He watched them take short little flying jumps from branch to branch. Chirping and singing. He took a deep breath and looked upwards towards the blue sky and sun. That’s when he noticed the rope coiled on the branch above him.
Shaking his head he tugged on the hanging end of the rope and it uncoiled and swung like a snake. He watched the end of the rope just stop short of the ground as it bobbed around. Laughing to himself he grabbed the rope and slowly slid down.
As he approached the cabin he could smell something delicious cooking.
The young warrior entered the wizards home with a sheepish grin and the wizards said “Ready for lesson three?”
“What’s lesson three?” asked the young warrior. The wizard grinned and said “You already learned it.”
Reading the confusion on the young warriors face the old wizard continued; “You took action, became aware, changed your breathing pattern then re-balanced yourself. We call that centering in the Wizard business. Congratulations you’ve learned your first spell. The centering spell.”
The young warriors mind was shifted then suddenly a growl came from his stomach. He realized it’s been a while since he’s eaten.
“Ahh. Time for Lunch!” said the old wizard over his shoulder as he stirred a pot hanging over the fire.
The young warrior looked at the spell book on the table once more and it was opened to the next page reminding him of the lesson he just learned. It had another letter bordered by a star. The capital letter ‘B’ and underlined below it was the words Breath and Balance. And on the next page it said ‘The Centering Spell’ with the steps he learned under it.
