I came across a picture of little reminder tags…mindfulness cues, I guess. Sweet gestures to tell us what to do when we are feeling a little lost, a little in need of grounding.
“Trust.”
“Love.”
Sure.
The one that got me, was “Just Breathe.”
There is no such thing as “just breathing,” when you need it. There is “breathe.” There is “take a breath.” Even better, “take a breath with me,” or “blow out all the air in your lungs, and now take the next breath in very slowly until your lungs are as full as you can make them.”
Dear makers of the world; Dear monetizers of mindfulness and all that is mind-body connection: do not show you have already lost your patience. When you are watching people suffer in the frenzied bullshit of their own anxiety, panic, and fear, do not trivialize their pain with a “just.” Lovingly, remember the overwhelm. Remember the hold it had on you or your loved ones, before you decided to show the way, and Remember Patience.
Dear makers and monetizers of the path to imminent and systematic combat against one’s own amygdala: if you have never fully, entirely, lost the moment–and with it, the capacity to remember to breathe, please at least remember to leave “just” out of the gentle road map I believe you are honestly attempting to craft.
Yes, show the way, lovingly mark the trail–but do not leave a parallel trail of shame and judgment for people to unknowingly swallow up. Check your own pockets for holes, and check your reflection for self-castigation, before you take out your letterpress. Do not spill the crumbs of what you might be carrying. We can not survive on crumbs, and you are not out to choke those following desperately behind you.
