In and Out: Breathing and Praying in Uncertainty

I feel as though I have been holding my breath for months. When the world shut down, seemingly overnight I remember thinking that it would be hard but we just had to hunker down and get through it.

I don’t think anyone (or a least not most of us) really knew what we were in for at the time. Maybe that’s a good thing.

One of the things I’ve learned through my years of tummy-safe fitness is that holding your breath is not healthy. It actually increases internal pressure on your organs and tissues.

This makes logical sense but I don’t think I fully appreciated the importance of breath until it was analyzed that way. Our bodies were meant to expand and contract with inhales and exhales. We were not meant to take a big breath and then force our muscles to hold it in.

Even in times like this, we need to remember to breathe. Strike that. Especially in times like this, we need to breathe. Click To Tweet

But so many of us aren’t. We just stuff our fears and emotions down inside and then slap on a mask (literal or figurative) and go about our business. Just as none of us could have imagined nine months of what we’ve just experienced (or the loss of a year or more of our lives as usual), we can’t know when a crisis will strike or how long it will remain.

We need a strategy and not one that involves toughing it out with no end in sight will only increase the internal pressure, not just on our bodies but on our souls.

When we did the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality course last year around this time, in one of the sessions we touched on breath prayers. I was familiar with the concept but it was a good reminder of how important it is to practice.

A simple prayer, prayed with each exhale before filling your lungs again with good, clean air. What could be more appropriate at a time in history when the world seems to be collectively holding its breath? Click To Tweet

“Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

“Lord, give me strength.”

“May your will be done.”

These are all things we can pray almost without thinking. But we can also cultivate times of deliberate breath prayer. I try to do this when I don’t have words. When I feel so overwhelmed I feel as though the oxygen is being squeezed from my lungs. I know that if I can breathe, I can pray, and if I can pray, I will be able to breathe again.

I encourage you to find moments in your day (if you are a mom who never gets breaks the shower can be a great place for this) to take three deep breaths, and find a simple prayer to utter with those exhales.

When you inhale remember that you are a child of the most-High God, filled with the Holy Spirit empowered to do good works that God planned in advance for you to do. Not just when life is easy. Not except during a pandemic. But always and constantly.