Growing up with Smoking
It seems on looking back over my lifetime of more than 76 orbits of the sun, and through much of my developing years, everyone ‘smoked’. When one reflects on that sentence – that everybody smoked – I could allow myself to contemplate that word. One could tend to think of a physical body actually exuding an ethereal type of vapour arising from the entirety of the body, like a mist wafting from the very cells of the flesh… a bit like one sees if visiting Iceland and watching the steam visibly drifting up from the centre of the earth, seeping through the crust around one randomly, anywhere and everywhere at any one time.
But no, that wasn’t the case, and as a child I wondered why it was that people chose to ‘draw in’ – to ‘do the drawback’ – filling the precious lungs with smoke and resulting in coughing, rasping and even possibly leading to the lung disease of emphysema.
As a 5-year-old I felt the breath of the trees, sky and the stars inside my lungs. Even though I did not grasp this from anything I knew as ‘knowledge’ back then, I just knew without question that every particle in our body is one with all that is in the universe.
Severe whooping cough was a frightening experience at that age where my little body bent over racked with the effort to breathe, all the while knowing that I had to breathe in God’s breath to live. Did any of us have any connection to our body or listen to what it was constantly communicating to us – not a ‘gut’ feeling as they say, but a whole body awareness?
Being the oldest child in charge of two little brothers, we would on rare occasion visit the Saturday matinee – ‘the flicks’ – with the only advertisements I recall showing the ‘Marlboro man’ sharing his affinity with nature by riding a great steed until he finally stopped on reaching the top of the mountain; then he would light up a cigarette and breathe something foreign deeply into his lungs, supposedly to more easily enjoy all that God in nature was offering!
I also often wondered some years later why on our black and white television, a romance movie in the mid 50’s always showed the couple ‘lighting up’ and having a cigarette after looking a bit hot and bothered in a bed – how unromantic, all that cigarette breath! A child may well wonder, but looks to the adults in their world for guidance – after all, the adults are supposed to know it all.
I tried smoking when about 17 during a pyjama party with some bank work colleagues – how risqué! My goodness we were so adventurous and bold smoking… so rebellious! I didn’t take more than one choking puff, and exclaimed I didn’t like it. So it would seem I was always the odd one out – never quite fitting in with the crowd.
How strange we human beings can be, always looking to fit in and be like everyone else, seeking outside of ourselves to be liked, acknowledged and accepted – but did I somehow know deep within that there was a different way to be?
This act of smoking surrounded me during my entire life at home in a Melbourne eastern suburb; in later years when pocket money was available I even supported my father’s only vice (that he spoke of) by buying him the cigarette papers and sometimes a packet of Havelock tobacco for a birthday present so he could ‘roll his own.’ It didn’t seem to matter at the time that I also was breathing in the vapours – it was part of life even though I didn’t like the smell on either the breath or in the air. All of this experience was post 2nd World War: there was a belief pushed on the general public at that time that smoking ‘relaxed’ one.
One has to ask, have we actually chosen to allow these beliefs to be taken unwittingly into our bodies and once there, these beliefs have been stagnating, revealing themselves physically in many and varied ways?
The Vapour that Pursued me Relentlessly
As life went on, the vapour – the smoke – pursued me relentlessly, as some following examples will testify:
After my marriage I found out that my husband was introduced to smoking at Puckapunyal Army Training Camp, where the officers handed out handfuls of cigarettes to the young and ‘wet behind the ears’ recruits that had been called up, supposedly to ‘make men out of them.’ Years later, complaints from the wives that their homes were less than fragrant next morning after gatherings… not to mention the empty beer bottles and cigarette butts over spilling the ashtrays, were rebutted with, “We demand our right to smoke!!!” from some of the men.
Our children were also surrounded by this act of smoking, but fortunately a different choice was made after a short time as they showed evidence of troubled lungs from the open-cut brown coalmine area that we lived in. By now I had become acutely allergic to cigarette smoke and found it extremely challenging even going into a restaurant, where anybody at any table could ‘light-up’ before, during or after the meal. It was very hard to breathe and my face would swell, tears well up, with sneezing etc.
When it was time to travel… to explore the world… we visited countries where the right to smoke literally anywhere was a given, and for some from any age. In the jungles of Borneo on the way to the awesome Niah Caves, suddenly one would be confronted by a large garish billboard put there by some tobacco company: or within the confines of some airlines’ planes it was deemed acceptable to smoke, where a flimsy little curtain barrier was supposed to prevent other passengers from being affected. The trams, trains and coffee shops – anywhere really – was open slather…
Our adventures took us to both ends of this earth, North and South Pole. Many of us have experienced the pristine air of these areas and we stood in awe at the sight of the majestic, gigantic icy monoliths, the icebergs of Antarctica within hand’s reach almost, glistening blue from the oxygen held within. It was such a sight – passengers rugged up looking colourful in their rainbow array of padded jackets, fluffy hoods and mittens in the bitter cold of this crisp and clean air.
Hardly a sound – just standing in awe on the open deck of the cruise ship as it glided silently through the velvety smooth deep and dark water. How humbling. How insignificant we can appear, but at the same time pondering on the possibility that we are all made of the same stuff, the elements, the particles of everything of the Universe. Then begorrah! The man in front of me lights up a cigarette, puffing his pungency into this pristine air…
Later we had to move from a two-story house to an apartment. We chose well, or rather it felt more like a gift from Heaven on the 22nd floor, with a view across the wide ocean and across to the hinterland up into the clear, clear air.
Our furniture was in place, my massage table had found its position in one spare room and then like an all-consuming wall of unseen smell, I sensed the overwhelming presence – a pungency that was familiar, but magnified. It was wafting into my open space of what was to be my office: it was the smell of Russian cigars – oh no!! How can this be – can’t I get away from it even up here??… would we have to move again…?
My understanding of why this smoke seemed to pursue me from one end of the earth to another was still ahead of me, waiting to unfold.
Meeting Serge Benhayon & Exploring the Truth of Whole Body Intelligence
It took a lifetime of looking outside of myself for the answers; not until in my sixties did I realise I had come full circle, back to the starting point from more than six decades of rotations of the earth around the sun. Then I met a very regular but extraordinary ordinary man called Serge Benhayon. My meeting this wise sage is another story in itself, but suffice to say this World Teacher of the Ageless Wisdom changed the direction of my life and where it was going – at the time further and further away from God’s love at a rate of knots – as I searched in vain for something ‘out there’ that made total sense to me.
Serge Benhayon never tells anyone to ‘do’ or ‘not to do’ anything, but simply presents the possibility of another way – The Way of The Livingness. As a result of meeting this man I have been reflecting on many things in my life thus far: the hurts, the emotions, the patterns etc. and pondering on the possibility of a deeper purpose behind all of our health issues and events.
The evidence of ill health in the population of the world displays that there is much for us to ‘un-learn’ or let go of, clear and heal by perhaps making the choice of a different way of living that could bring us back to who we truly are and how we could live in a joyful and harmonious body.
May we also ask why has it taken so long for us to realise our bodies are always trying to communicate with us? Do so many people have to die due to lung or other diseases before we realise we have a whole body intelligence that we could choose to align with? One has to wonder what have we all been afraid of that may be revealed. Are we afraid of the Truth?
As I personally grappled with the effects of passive cigarette smoke on my health in my effort to understand ‘why’, this Truth was eventually revealed to me.
As I became more familiar with listening to my body, practising the Esoteric Modalities including the Gentle Breath Meditation™ as presented by Serge Benhayon at the various Universal Medicine presentations I attended, I took the time to nurture myself a little more and be more aware of the deep intelligence that comes from the whole body.
This was a time of deep exploration for me, learning to discern where the impetus of the message was coming from: was it from the mind – that is, the computer of the body with the information gathered from a myriad of sources outside of myself – or was it from the intelligence of my whole body, from the cells of my being, that part of me that is at one with the entirety of the universe?
Over some years of this exploration and listening to my body, I naturally let go of gluten, dairy, and alcohol in my own way, and also adopted a more supportive sleep pattern… all to great effect.
The Effects of Cigarette Smoke & the Law of Karma
However, cigarette smoke from any source was no doubt still affecting my health. One has to ask why was this so? Like a Peregrine falcon smelling prey from miles away, I could smell cigarette smoke; looking around accusingly I would try and ascertain where the culprit was lurking, casting a judgment on their chosen behaviour. How arrogant! Did I then consider the possibility that there was a reflection for me to be aware of? More and more instances occurred where it seemed others would be deliberately placed in my proximity to challenge my ability to breath. What was I to learn from this – surely my irritation had to have a deeper lesson for me to contemplate?
It was during these moments of reflection that I could see the truth and the wisdom of the Laws of the Universe, including the Law of Cause and Effect, or Karma. Had I indeed participated in lives previously, in any number of incarnations, in preventing others from ‘Breathing in the Light of Christ’, the ‘Breath of God’ in a myriad of scenarios…? I can feel now the smoke from cigarettes, cigars etc. filling the lungs – limiting the possibility of one’s Divine connection with Soul, to God, to The All That Is.
Is it possible that all this imposition of others’ cigarette smoke affecting my life and my health was not in fact a punishment, but an opportunity for me to experience and appreciate what it felt like to be so imposed upon, by actually inhibiting my own experience of the glory of breathing my own breath – and my awareness now that these experiences were offered, bringing the scales back into some sense of energetic order? Worthy of consideration perhaps.
Our Lungs and the In-Breath & Out-Breath of God
It seems to me now that the sacred movement within our lungs reflects the beauty and divinity of the closeness of our connection to the universe and the stars for they, the lungs in form, allow the flow – the flow of the very In-breath and the Out-breath of God.
Has all of this activity of having experienced the imposition of cigarette smoke affecting my health and my life actually been my Soul offering me clarity; a deeper understanding of the separation that is created, and of what it is in truth to breathe the Light and the Love that is the Christ Energy?
In these moments of revelation, I feel such appreciation for the gift of understanding of the possible truth of the situation; and I might add here that since then there have been fewer impositions from others casting their chosen habit upon my sensitivities. When it does occur, I feel it is but a reminder to treat all equally, without judgment – and to remember that we are all the Sons of God remembering who we truly are.
By Roberta Himing, aged 76, Student of Life, Gold Coast, Australia
Further Reading:
Good Health, Intelligence and Smoking
Reincarnation and Karma: Hocus Pocus or Perfect Balance?
Our mind might tell us to have a cigarette but if we asked our lungs they would say no.
This is a very interesting blog to read and understand, I adore the sacredness you give to our lungs if we could really comprehend that our lungs are the in breath and out breath of God That this is our very connection to God. In order not to comprehend this we call in a force that obliterates any sense that we are part of God and so the harm is allowed. So my question has to be why do we call in a force so that we do not get to feel the very breath of God in our bodies?
Why is it with anything we try … cigarettes, alcohol etc we don’t like it but are willing to override our bodies to continue!!! I did this for years to the point where I felt as much as I wanted to I couldn’t stop! Thankfully with support in clearing so much from my body, beliefs, ideals, hurts etc that was not me through esoteric healing I no longer do both, haven’t for about 13 years and have never once looked backed and missed it. Instead my life is far more fuller and joyfull than it has ever been.
“Serge Benhayon never tells anyone to ‘do’ or ‘not to do’ anything, but simply presents the possibility of another way – The Way of The Livingness” Learning to be aware of and listen to the wisdom communicated by our body offers an understanding of why life is the way it is and an opportunity to make changes.
When people meet Serge Benhayon their lives change either they are curious to know more or they accept their ‘comfortable’ lives and don’t want to know that there is an alternative and so resist the offerings presented. I personally feel that is what Serge Benhayon presents the possibility of something completely different, a what if scenario?
The things that irritate us about others the most actually are the loudest lessons to learn about ourselves. The irritation is in the not taking heed of what there is to learn.
This is an unseen enemy that takes us on a trip that is taking us away from ourselves, and like many other relationships we have these smoke screens eventually will be exposed for how it detracts from who we are. And thus when we appreciate our divine connection or essences and this is an appreciate-ive-ness that simply takes away these false ways of securing something we are not, so to appreciate fills the empty-ness that we try and fill with smoke etc.
It seems to me Greg we are our own enemy, it’s as though we have a dual personality where one is more dominant than the other and we are reckless with ourselves even though there is another part of us, our divineness that when connected to wakes us up to our waywardness. Is this the mastery of life when we connect to our essence and bring our bodies back into alignment with the universe?
I like the understandings you came to, and share, like, ‘Is it possible that all this imposition of others’ cigarette smoke affecting my life and my health was not in fact a punishment, but an opportunity for me to experience and appreciate what it felt like to be so imposed upon’.
Appreciation puts an energetic sword to any thing that detracts from our essences.
It can indeed be interesting to reflect on our responses and reactions to various aspects of life over time. For example I can see changes in my own relationship to cigarette smoke, which is now increasingly substituted by new fad of breathing in and exhaling vapor loaded by chemicals, which I imagine would be engineered to be just as addictive to ensure sales. I started off by not caring much what went on around me, then as I became more sensitive to and aware of my body and could feel the impact of even the secondary breathing when others smoked around me, I became somewhat judgmental of smokers.
But a few years on, now I tend to apply more of an understanding of why any of us make such choices that are harmful, and focus more on what this behavior shows about the devastation humanity is facing which is being kept at bay by employing behaviours that numb us to our experience even if it is for a few seconds at a time.
The beauty of being a student of life and the reflections offered by your Soul – which I find beautifully complemented and supported by the teachings of ageless wisdom and the living example provided by Serge Benhayon – is that you forever keep deepening and expanding your awareness. I know if I look back at this same scenario in a year or two, my outlook and understanding will be so much deeper and more expanded.
Golnaz Shariatzadeh I feel that humanity is being asked to wake up and expand their awareness and I do feel this is happening as we can see the effects in many different countries around the world where the everyday people are asking questions about the way their lives are controlled by the establishment running their country.
Roberta what you share makes so much sense, nothing ever happens to us randomly, we either work with God or without him either way we will always get to experience the out play of such decisions.
When we are truly open, the answers are there.
Indeed Sarah and breathing our own breath supports us in our openness to the all.
The first separation is with ourselves, that we have stepped away from ourselves that causes any separation and judgment from others. The more we fight something the more it chases us to the end of the world, to show us that the frustration we feel is the core issue of stepping away from ourselves and hence a separation from the connection and love that we then cannot offer to anyone, but naturally our body only wants this .
I agree Adele, we are funnels through which energy comes through. Through our solid re-connection back to ourselves we ensure that the energy that is coming through us is the base energy of The Universe but when we are adrift from ourselves, roaming around in the land of ideas, beliefs and identity then that is an open invitation for another type of energy to come through us. It is that other energy that wreaks havoc with our world, adding to the illusion of separation and perpetuating the myth of individualisation.
If we truly want we can trace back the various kinds of smoke we experience in our lives, to the true cause that burns underneath. Anything less is just pushing smoke around thinking you’ve overcome the issue.
Now everyone has been made aware of the dangers of smoking ‘vaping’ is becoming the norm.. Billows of smoke come from these little contraptions and it is being hailed as a safe alternative but already there are findings being aired that show that this may not be anywhere near as safe as we have been told…just like tobacco smoking all those years ago.
Ah the blatant lies of advertising “riding a great steed until he finally stopped on reaching the top of the mountain; then he would light up a cigarette and breathe something foreign deeply into his lungs, supposedly to more easily enjoy all that God in nature was offering!”. The more harmful the substance the greater the juxtaposition from truth needs to be.
It was interesting having some of the old advertising and use of cigarettes in movies. I grew up with the Marlboro man ads too, and it was clearly directed at men, and suggested to be a manly man you had to smoke. I also got the message from old movies that for women it was elegant and tied in with having a ‘romance’. They were perfectly designed to our weak spots and desires. Men want to fit the ‘manly model’ and women dream of a romantic partner.
The Ageless Wisdom tell us that the In-breath and Out-breath of God are the repose and motion parts of an infinite universal cycle that we too are an intrinsic part of. Whoever first came up with inhaling a substance into their lungs must have been acutely aware of the lack of something, of the emptiness inside when disconnected from this oneness and majestic order.
I love how the wisdom of your body told you smoke in your lungs was a major issue for you. The body does speak and can guide us if we can listen.
“the sacred movement within our lungs reflects the beauty and divinity of the closeness of our connection to the universe and the stars” so beautifully expressed Roberta, not just our lungs but every particle of our whole body is bathed in this divine light as we breathe in and out.
We are fascinated by books and films but isn’t it time we started to see that everything in life has a story to tell? If only we are open to reading what is there, we’ll understand life isn’t barren or banal but super rich instead.
“the sacred movement within our lungs reflects the beauty and divinity of the closeness of our connection to the universe and the stars” – This is incredibly beautiful Roberta. Every body part or organ certainly has a unique purpose in what it does and reflects to us. Injuries or illnesses are also never ‘random’ because of this fact.
It is a great reflection to see that our inbreath and outbreath of God,and then look at smoking : we will honestly see why we smoke.
Lovely to be reminded of that simple sweet breath as a child, to be filled with the wonderment of nature and everything around us…. quite the antithesis of a smoker filling my lungs so I don’t have to feel as much. So many steps have been taken away from the sweetness, but at least now I am on the journey home to those simple, sweet origins.
All of life is telling us everything – but do we want to know? Why fight being educated and informed and supported to grow?
Once we admit that we know, responsibility is the next step; taking responsibility for how we conduct ourselves and for our every choice. This is what many shy away from, erroneously thinking that taking responsibility will curb their liberties of doing as they please. But has ‘doing as we please’ delivered the goods, has it brought freedom, settlement or truth? The answer is clearly no. Is responsibility the true alternative to our licentiousness and ill ways? And if so, what are we really scared of?
The physical and practical function of smoking makes no sense what so ever and really everyone knows this. What we usually don’t want to look at is the disregard and self loathing we are in that takes us to a place where we want to smoke cigarettes. Until we look at the lovelessness we are never truly free of abuse.
Wow how wonderful to understand the Truth of Whole Body Intelligence, now thats what I call true education.
“Severe whooping cough was a frightening experience at that age where my little body bent over racked with the effort to breathe” – Having this experience when you were young would have been very intense, and isn’t it interesting that later on in life this sense of constriction from smoking for so long was similarly affecting your relationship to your breath. Could there actually be a link between the two, and something to look at in terms of why it was your lungs that showed you something was up in your body both times?
‘As a 5-year-old I felt the breath of the trees, sky and the stars inside my lungs.’ How beautiful the connection is to the something grander that we are when we are little. It’s deeply sad that as we become adults, that wonder and all-knowing gets lost in the myriad of day to day activities of life that become the struggling mundane.
‘..have we actually chosen to allow these beliefs to be taken unwittingly into our bodies and once there, these beliefs have been stagnating, revealing themselves physically in many and varied ways?’ I really like this question. It shows to me the ways that beliefs have an energy that we ingest and letting go of beliefs and ideals is clearing our bodies of the smoke, the cloudy thoughts, to return us to clarity. It’s like the sea mist lifting to let the sun shine through.
Many people smoke electronic cigarettes now. They don’t offer so much smoke but they have not really changed the issue. I haven’t looked at any research yet but it feels like an implosion for smokers. When we smoke or we are addicted to any harmful substance, we do not like ourselves very much. It feels this has intensified with electronic cigarettes. That smokers have another way to Loathe themselves more, thinking it is now less visible to others, or generate less attention or distaste from others. In other words it is more numbing of what really goes no, a protection to not feel.
The human race is very ‘creative’ when it comes to disguising the inner emptiness with evermore gadgetry and sophisticated ruses that try to hide or paint a different picture of what is really going on – the inner emptiness that, as their can never be a vacuum, demands to be filled with something. So let there be smoke, we say. Something is better than nothing, but is it really?
I live with people who smoke. I don’t smoke. The person smoking has to smoke kind of hidden, smokers sometimes carry the energy of being rejected. While I don’t smoke, sometimes I may have to smell smoke and be affected by it. Knowing this affects me, I have asked it to be done elsewhere, but when the rejection kicks in and retaliates, I keep quiet. There is the tendency to hurt myself not wanting to hurt another in feeling. The scenario is clear and nominated, surrendered like never before.
Not reading life is the habit we have to quit.
It’s tempting to see life’s events as incidental markers in time, when in fact everything that happens presents us an energetic reading, a gift. This isn’t just a cute side note to living but hugely significant information. We ought to pay great attention to these messages aimed at helping us return to Love.
I agree, Roberta. It was very different in the 1960s and 1970s – I even can smell cigarette smoke in my nostrils just writing about that time. Smoking was everywhere and if you said something you were put in your place, depending on the context it was mild or very aggressive.
Making cigarettes and so many other distractions are reminders that the tension does not go away or leads us to more severe levels of distraction that can be harming beyond words.
Seeing life literally is our greatest destructive habit – we absorb lies instead of seeing that everything’s about light and multi-dimensionality.
When we sign up for something or make a contract, so to speak, be it with cigarettes, loveless relationships or any other vice, they actually own us until we change our behaviours and come out of the contract, hence why it feels like the cigarette smoke could be following you – because that’s what you’d signed up for.
Super interesting Susie – how a contract leaves an imprint and that can follow you, hoping for an entry, a weak moment, a way back in.
Great comment Susie, this makes so much sense, explains how we can fall back into patterns and inspires a commitment to change.
It is incredible how something like smoking is considered to be a cool thing to do. When I was younger I tried to smoke to ‘fit in’ and I found it very difficult to do as my body naturally coughed and spluttered and I actually found it very difficult to do but I tried to keep going at the time and tried to over-ride my body so that I was not considered odd. It did not last long though as my body just could not handle it. At the time it felt like a failure but now I know it was a blessing from my body.
Growing up in the fifties and sixties our house seemed to be full of smoke. Both my parents smoked a lot as did most of their friends. In contrast I used to love being outside in the fresh air, or in the safety of my bedroom where the smell didn’t pervade so much. In my late teens I even took it up too for a short while as it gave me something to do with my hands at parties. That didn’t last long but out of five of us siblings three are still heavy smokers. What we do and how we live becomes a role model for our children.
Yes, I was lucky as neither of my parents smoked. I tried it at 12, didn’t like it and never tried again.
I love how you refer to the ‘sacred movement within our lungs’ and the ‘divine breath of God’. You make me want to breathe and appreciate every breath.
Indeed same here and also it makes me feel how abusive it was when I let that smoke interfere with that sacred movement.
If we truly appreciated every breath it would be a hop, skip and a jump to love.
What force must we call in after the first time we inhaled smoke into our lungs and the body’s reaction to it? It is not dissimilar to the raw burning sensation alcohol had to our throat the first time also! But, do we persist because of pressures outside of us to override the messages from our body?
It seems extraordinary that with all that we now know, the advertising that simply says ‘Smoking Kills’ and the even the negative social build up in recent years that this is still a popular thing to do. And yet it goes on. There is something people get on an emotional level that is still driving this behaviour and no amount of theory of knowledge is going to cut it. This is where Universal Medicine steps in – to help us understand why – what are we lacking that we are trying to fill up. Work on that and giving up is easy.
When I asked an old friend of mine who has had cancer and still smokes why she doesn’t stop she admitted that when she tries she feels so empty, so you are right Simon, if she worked on the emptiness she might stand a better chance of quitting.
It is crazy that we can pollute the body with cigarette smoke, alcohol, drugs etc and think that this is ok. Why have we normalized abusing the body and then we stand out if we begin to honour and love what the body’s wisdom is telling us?
Such wisdom and understanding of the world shows that an any age we can begin to see more than we ever have before.
I too have experienced the horror of the taste and the horrible feeling of having smoke in my lungs, all of this from 1 puff at the age of 11. My body knew, clearly the true harm of smoking and it is not something that I wanted to repeat. Yet getting emotional and feeling helpless was something that I choose over and over again. Both the intensity of emotional turmoil and the sucking in of cigarette smoke is equally as harmful to my body and others, yet it could be said that we judge the cigarette smoker, but not the one in emotional turmoil. There is much that we accept as ok that truly is not.
This article poses the life long question as to why we look upon another’s choices, and judge them. Being imposed upon by cigarette smoke is one of those all time moments where it seems justified to judge. Yet this act is but one in a myriad of behaviours that we feel justified in judging. Little do we realise the ramifications of such behavior is something we carry with us until we choose to change it, as is shared so clearly above.
“Did I then consider the possibility that there was a reflection for me to be aware of?” – This is a key part of your article Roberta, and something we can all learn from. We can get confused by something and feel at the mercy of an issue or complicated situation for years, without looking at the reflection that is actually on offer for us to learn from. It is this reflection that almost always has the key to what’s truly going on, and how we can adjust our livingness or deepen our understanding going forwards.
To have such a moment as a young child where you truly connect to the divinity of your breath, and then to go against that with smoking must take a toll on the body. But it is what so many of us do – ignore the magic of the breath, and substitute with chemicals. This blog shows how we can go into the head about what to try and disregard what the body naturally communicates to us. That must be a deep sadness. In my time I have tried smoking, and cannot deny the hurt that comes up from dishonoring my body in doing so.
There are so many areas of life that we accept as normal, things that we tell ourselves we should do, must do or are good for us when in fact they are not. With smoking its the same, whilst through the generations we’ve known it is harmful we still choose to partake, when we get to feel why we smoke then we can start the healing, understand what its telling us and naturally we stop. Easy to say when you’ve been through it, difficult if we don’t want to look at what is behind our smoking choices.
Wow Roberta this is quite some inner revelation – one that has in your sharing made us all richer – thank you.
Cigarette advertising has changed a lot. These days on packets of cigarettes there are pictures of how cigarette smoke can damage a persons mouth and lungs. And, it is interesting because even though these images are very powerful, the cigarettes are still bought and consumed. The other day a saw a couple of kids standing on a street corner, smoking and it was clear from the way they moved that they were trying very hard to look cool. When I asked the young man next to me if he thought they did look cool, he said no. Which makes me wonder, if the coolness isn’t working, why do it?
This is an excellent point Shami and one has to consider why, even with such gruesome advertising, we still buy cigarettes and millions of stores sell them across the globe. Perhaps we are seeking something more than just cigarettes through this habit…
I can remember very clearly feeling cool when I smoked, the way that I lit the cigarette, the way that I held the cigarette all felt like it was contributing to my coolness. By the time that I no longer felt cool I was addicted. Physically addicted to the tabacco, but just as strongly addicted to the association of having a cigarette as a means to either unwind, have a break or reward myself. Having a cigarette became a punctuation in my day, it marked the beginning and the end of my day and so many events and non events in between.
It is interesting for me that the beginning of the blog so clearly describes the observation and awareness of a child about something strange with smoking, and that did not feel harmonious. Yet later on we come to a point when post WWII “there was a belief pushed on the general public at that time that smoking ‘relaxed’ one”. Isn’t that interesting how easily we choose to override our inner awareness and conveniently adopt external factors to justify our choice. I notice that with really crazy so called trials that tell you 9 out of 10 people say such and such, where it is obvious the trial and the claim is suspect, but it gets treated as a very convenient fact. Without at least an honesty as invited in this blog we will keep grinding ourselves into the ground.
Passive smoking is a huge issue, I was around smokers for much of my childhood and did not smoke myself until I was an adult, I have stopped since, but it does absolutely effect your health, even when passively experienced. It is such an imposition to smoke around people. If you are a parent and smoke you literally pass on the addiction to your children through smoking around them. This however is a great example of other habits that adults participate in that they often tell their children not to do, but seeing, is role modelling and it is no surprise that children pick up the habits of their parents – something for us adults to consider when make something. habit in our lives…we can change our habits if we choose….
I always hated being in a confined space with smokers when I was younger, I knew back then that it felt horrible in my body and was harmful. I agree it was an imposition to smoke in confined spaces with other people, and equally we have to look at where we may be imposing on others in our lives.
I love this description of the breath of nature and the universe and this is something I have definitely felt in my life and it is a very beautiful thing to feel at one with it.
‘I love to laugh until the tears roll…’ when I read this next to your photo, I had such a big smile and then realised that I hadn’t done this in quite some time….no time like the present – laughter is such good medicine.
Wow Roberta what a story you have to share. I feel very humble with your sharing with your ability to seek truth and to why smoke seemed to follow you regardless of where you went; from the North pole to the South pole…. And from seeking truth you gained the awareness that these experiences were offered, bringing the scales back into some sense of energetic order?’. The laws of cause and effect, and was it karma playing out? I love to read at the end that this grace of understanding has meant less impositions on your sensitivities and when it does happen it is a reminder to treat all equally and without judgement…. thank you for sharing all you have, sharing all your wisdom with us.
I can see why people feel smoking does relax them. When I am shopping I always notice the people waiting to buy cigarettes. It’s not anything about what they are wearing or doing that draws my attention. I look up from my shopping as the feeling of agitation in them is immense. Then just by buying them there is a huge sense of relief. Its like they feel that they have the thing that will take the agitation away. The irony is that it may be the addiction and the feeling of needing something to relax you that creates some of the tension in the first place.
The moment we react to another’s disregard, we don‘t offer a clear reflection to them. That does not mean to compromise with setting limits to abuse, but to stay open and have understanding. As every habit is telling so much about the person’s way of sabotaging the divinity they carry in their body. When we react, we make it only about us, if we stay open, it is about the other equally.
When we choose to read why things are occuring in our life, we recognise how blessed we are. Everything is there to grow for us, we just need to say yes to the lesson.
A lovely reminder Stefanie that we just need to say yes to the lesson, even those challenging ones and I have found asking for support helps in riding those challenging waves when they come, and afterwards always feel lighter having released some old habit or behaviour that really had to go.
Claiming the breath of God is our responsibility as man.
Roberta this is fantastic to read how on a deeper level there was much more than just being surround by smoke, that there was indeed self-reflection on offer and you took it open handedly and supported a great shift and healing for yourself. Super cool and super self-empowering as well.
I observe that when we bring understanding, so much can be revealed, so much truth that can support us to grow and expand.
I could say that pretty much everyone I know who I have asked about smoking or even drinking would say they did not like the 1st inhale or the 1st sip so why would we then force ourselves to have more. It shows there is more at play and a big part of this is wanting to fit in and be accepted – which for me shows that we are not being brought up to love and cherish ourselves enough. The abusive behaviours are then a follow on and outplay of events.
I was quite a heavy smoker for about 7 years until my first child was born. Although I knew that it was not good for me, and often I didn’t feel so great after having a smoke I continued to do it. I convinced my self that having something to do when talking to others gave me a confidence that wasnt there otherwise. However the birth of my first child shook me out of this unfounded confidence and I realised the responsibilty I had to look after myself and my baby and not put her health at risk. It seems crazy how it took another life to wake me up to this, as it often does for so many of us, but its a sad fact that it is not uncommon for us to only change our unhealthy ways because of another, and not because we feel we are really worth looking after.
Such a wonderful account of self reflection and self honesty and how this has such a powerful effect on ourselves with healing and all those around us.
What I get from your blog is that our breath is deeply sacred. It is what gives us life and it is what connects us to God. To pollute ourselves with anything but pure breath is an insult to what we have been given. And this can mean anything, not just cigarette smoke. Allowing any energy to enter our bodies that is not from the pure breath of God can damage our health. Learning to observe and discern is so important in order not to allow the seeping in of an energy that is not true. This is a learning that is life long.
I love returning to this blog as it’s very apt for me. I am used to reacting to life and in particular the smell of cannabis or tobacco smoke. My reaction is ‘how dare they impose their poison so I cannot but breath it in?’ How inconsiderate and harming! I did not choose to breathe this in so how dare they affect me like this! but, having read this I am having to ask – where do I impose the poison of my lifestyle onto others? Well every day and for a lot of the day is the answer. It’ll be in every reaction I have, every movement I make that is not in harmony with God, that is in separation and not making life about us all together. The latter is what I react to the most about people’s behaviours – perhaps because it is so dear to me- us all being in brotherhood and me knowing I do not live this myself consistently. It’s a wonderful awareness to work from, making my life more about people, me included, and less about just me.
I think with our bodies we can go with the presumption that if it FEELS bad for us, it probably is bad for us. I wonder what life would be like if we started with a clean slate with out body, so we hadn’t already bludgeoned and conditioned it to accept smoking, alcohol, ice cream, donuts, overeating etc, and in that super sensitive and aware state what truly would our bodies want to eat, drink and ingest?
I am pretty sure our bodies would not only feel and look different honouring its sensitivity, but we would also move different in our bodies. We would move much more in our multidimensionality instead of a fed body that has to function.
Perhaps the pain of our separation from God and having lived that separation for a long time, is all too much so that when we are faced with God on the deck of a cruise in Antarctica, all we can bear to do is pollute our body so that we don’t feel the glory and in that glory the pain of not living it.
Nikki -your words expressed are so beautiful and offer another point of understanding our brother – thank you for the further revealing of the possible pain deeply held in another – how can we judge. Quite humbling really.
Yes we can blame ‘them’ for pushing beliefs like- smoking is there to relax us or like alcohol is good for the health of our heart. Yet we always have to look at our choices – our collective question to seek relief instead of true healing. Because we all have a deep knowing inside ourselves of what is true and what is not true.
We are as a race of humans so lost in who we think we are. Many of us are searching for that hidden meaning, for knowing what life is all about, and what you present here offers us clues to the true meaning of our lives.
It sure does Heather and the more we realise that everything we could ever want is found within the less we will continue the endless search outside of ourselves for answers.
This is deeply inspiring and the exquisiteness of your inner connection expressed in these words is pure gold to read and feel Roberta.
“my Soul offering me clarity; a deeper understanding of the separation that is created, and of what it is in truth to breathe the Light and the Love that is the Christ Energy”
What a great example of the wisdom and healing in observing and deepening our understanding about the reflection being offered to us in whatever situation we are facing. Otherwise we end up just pointing our finger and trying to change the picture ‘out there’ instead of embracing the opportunity to heal, expand and evolve.
Having tried smoking a few times I was amazed by how much effort it took me to smoke, it was horrible – at first – but then I overrode that and whilst smoking always disgusted me somehow I build up to be able to smoke. Anyway luckily my relationship with smoking didn’t last long but why I smoked lasted much longer and so I turned to other things to make me feel better.
I was the same – I remember coughing and how I felt my chest constrict and was left with a foul taste in my mouth and yet I pushed on through to become a fairly heavy smoker for years, such was the emptiness I sought to fill with each inhalation. This is why stopping smoking became so easy in the end – worked on making lots of other choices differently until the emptiness I felt had gone so there simply was no place left for smoking.
I had the same experience my body hated it but I wanted to fit in and be accepted which is crushing when I look back how much I have put my body through and still do at times to fit in with others which is crazy.
As a child I hated cigarette smoke and have done always and have never smoked and feel sick around it yet so many of my close friends were heavy smokers for many years but that has stopped now for many reasons and the awareness of the ill health effects being part of this and the addressing of the reason why taking away the need and addiction naturally from within.
Many of us persevere with the ill behaviour depending on how much we want to fit in with our friends and smoking is one of those things.
Yeh from what I’ve seen the peer pressure around smoking and alcohol is actually increasing as it becomes more normal, the question is – is it ever worth hurting ourselves to fit in?
I sometimes smell cigarette smoke in the street and it stops me to consider how I put that in my body. Like as an intelligent young man who knew that it is a toxin and a poison, to still smoke just doesn’t make sense.
Totally relate Michael! I smoked for 14 years! How horrendous! Such an assault on my body. So grateful I stopped. .
It’s hard to ignore the feeling of heaven in your lungs on a crisp, clear evening, and the connection you can feel to nature, the stars and the greater universe that’s out there and around you. It seems crazy that we fill this divine space with smoke and debris, which happens literally when smoking cigarettes but also in life when we clutter the space we live/work in, and it’s important to ask the question of Why?
True Susie W it is important to ask the question as to why we would put smoke into our sacred bodies, the more I understand about our bodies the more it astounds me that we are mostly ignorant to the fact we are mind boggling amazing.
This is gold Roberta. When we consider our responsibility we can no longer sit in blame and reaction. Instead we are offerred an opportunity to heal and connect.
Wow Roberta, thank you. I grew up surrounded by smoke, I myself tried smoking for a couple of years but ever since I’ve stopped smoking I almost have an expectation of others to not smoke around me too. However, to read that smelling smoke is a reminder to treat people equally is a very loving perspective to adopt.
We live everyday, breathing away but how many are savoured, cherished and enjoyed as we breathe in and out again? And yet we prize the cigarette break and getting to inhale that way. What if we simply embraced and deeply appreciated our every breath not as a given but a gift? Perhaps Roberta this is the secret not just to giving up smoking but to life.
Joseph your comment got me to drop into my breath and to feel the depth within it.
Have we learned our lessons from the diseases from the lifestyles we have chosen? How close is the odds of a coin-toss becoming, the result of us getting it!
Such beautiful example of how we can embrace instead of fight back the love that is presented to us and observe what it is we need to master and become equipped to deal with. It first asks us to observe and see what is truly going on.. Beautiful how we are always shown and experiencing those things that we need to understand of ourselves of others and let go of and evolve from.
It’s amazing how we always end up doing things that are not great for us and our body tells us but we then override it, when we eventually listen to it we relalise we knew all along. Smoke is one such example; I was sick the first time I tried to smoke yet persisted and then 14 years ago woke up and realised it still made me sick.
Great point Susan that a baby wont eat twice a food it doesn’t like, yet we adults who have years of experience with food and eating and can feel when a certain food makes us bloated or tired afterwards and still we continue to eat it… my feeling is when we adults do this we are staying in our indulgence and our comforts, and saying no to expanding and evolving and to more awareness – putting my hand up here and a big ouch as I have started eating foods again that I know I do not need.
When we have a toxic habit such as smoking or being addicted to drugs in our lifestyle, one of the most crippling effects it has on us is the fact that we never get a sense of our full glory and us being US without the direct influence of these toxins, or the exhaustion/anxiety/paranoia that comes with them.
Reading your article Roberta, reminded me of growing up in a household where both parents chain smoked constantly. I used to hide my fathers cigarettes in the hope that he would one day stop – and one day he did, unfortunately not until he was diagnosed with vascular dementia. Maybe my experience was similar to yours in as much as it was showing me that I was choosing to not breathe the breath of God. Thank goodness I never took up smoking myself choosing instead to feel the clean air in my lungs and when I too found Serge Benhayon, began to practise the gentle breath meditation, much more satisfying than a cigarette.
This is interesting Sandra in that both of my parents were non-smokers and anti-smoking and yet I ended up being a heavy smoker for years. Perhaps we make choices out of rebellion sometimes only to realise later the deeper truth behind them.
It would have been easy to stay the victim in this situation as you did not choose to smoke yourself but in your openness and humbleness you got to see that everything we encounter is an opportunity to grow and evolve. How beautiful.
‘looking around accusingly I would try and ascertain where the culprit was lurking, casting a judgment on their chosen behaviour. How arrogant! ” So I can relate to this very much – like that has been me and me getting irritated and indignant and angry and scared I am being affected- especially by people smoking weed which is very common in the summer months outside. I am very appreciative that you’ve made me stop and really consider how I’ve imposed upon others so they cannot breathe in the full glory of God because I’ve squashed their space. Beautiful to reflect upon this in how I live my day to day life. Thank you
What you beautifully reveal here Roberta is that karma is never a punishment but always about learning and that it is shown to us in the most beautiful ways.
It’s never been about the smoke but the side effect it has and the way it helps in blocking out how we feel. That’s why a million pictures of tarry lungs don’t stop people from continuing to smoke away. That says a lot about how strongly emotions effect us every day. Makes me think we should regard them just as seriously -‘oh wow I just had a 20-pack of resentment!’. Thank you Roberta.
So the focus should be on how we feel as that unlocks the patterns of behaviour that keep us bound up… yet who is out there educating us on that body awareness. Certainly not the main stream education system that is filled with knowledge but not the focus on wisdom. And wisdom comes from body awareness and then expression.
It makes me ponder on the advertisements we see everyday around us that one day will no longer be there because we would have woken up to the harm they create and impose on us just like the smoking advertisements that were once accepted by humanity.
An interesting and honest exposing of cigarette smoking, its effects and all that it is showing us along with our health and way of living. Everything is a learning and full of messages for us to explore and learn from if we choose it.
I have recently come to realize that it is the arrogance and disregard for other people’s health that I have reacted to the most with cigarette smokers. It’s as if they are saying, “Well, I’m probably going to get some kind of lung disease, so I don’t care if someone else near me does to so I feel better about my own condition and am not alone in the suffering.” This is similar to when we don’t want to be the only one called up on doing something wrong- the old misery loves company syndrome. However, I now realize after reading this blog I now can see how there may have been a karmic cause for me consistently feeling imposed upon by smokers and by simply accepting them without judgement and knowing they will eventually realize the harm they are doing to themselves and others, I can stop myself from imposing on THEM by judging them.
It is amazing to think that, not long ago, they used to promote cigarette smoking as the perfect addition to life…. times have changed in that regard. But we have so much more to let go of before we stop trying to anaesthetise ourselves in our existence and start to live in full.
I am becoming aware that everything tells us something, the shape of a cloud, the bird on a tree, the colour of a car, the movement of a door, the way some one sits, all is there to support us to understand something more greatly. This blog got me pondering how I had people smoke around me when I was a child.
I love your awareness as a 5 year old that you were a part of the stars and the trees and the universe, and that when you took a breath all this was inside of you. Just gorgeous. When do we lose this beautiful sense of wonder and knowing? It is great and so refreshing to come back to it. Thank you for the inspiration.
I used to smoke and experience the discomfort of a semi permanent cough that I would then continue to smoke through… absolutely bonkers. The decision to never smoke again is one of my favourites, and so slowly but surely my relationship with that in breath and out breath, with the tenderness in my lungs and how that interacts with our divine nature and connection with it all expands. Its beautiful… why would we want to dampen that?
Reconnecting to our own gentle breath allows us to reconnect to our innermost essence and the quality of stillness that we come from.
As you beautifully explain Roberta, the in breath and out breath of life is all around us, in nature, and the world that we live. Yet as smoking shows we are experts at fighting and resisting what is so natural to live. To the extent we even invented something specifically to block it out and override. The more we accept this, the more we understand life.
Roberta, what a profound realisation you have shared with us in this blog with lots for us to ponder on so thank you.
As an ex-smoker I now appreciate what an immensely self-attacking habit it is, born from a deep separation to our exquisite love within us.
I have heard a number of people who have smoked previously but stopped saying how much they still like the smell of cigarette smoke when they are near someone else smoking and it occurs to me that although these people have given up smoking they still have an emptiness they seek to fill and so are still attracted to cigarettes. If we deal with the emptiness we feel first then not only is there nothing to ‘give up’ it’s just a case of stopping smoking but there is no longer anything at all appealing about any aspect of smoking.
‘In these moments of revelation, I feel such appreciation for the gift of understanding of the possible truth of the situation’ … What a gift it has been to read and feel the absolute treasure that you share in your blog, Roberta, thank you.
Isn’t it crazy that we can even be mildly allergic or intolerant to something, e.g. a food or cigarette smoke, and still we override these symptoms and choose to ingest it. And then after testing our body’s limits for many years we question why we get sick.
Good question Susie… why push through something rather than be obedient to what our bodies are telling us?
I agree Susie, the fact that many of us see vomiting after we’ve either inhaled something or taken something as a positive thing because it allows us to keep going and have a ‘good night’ out is one of the million trillion examples of the fact that we are being walked by an energy that is hellbent on obstructing our relationship with our bodies. Another example is the fact that we see pushing our bodies to such ridiculous lengths whilst exercising that we not only accept extreme pain but actually welcome it as a sign that we’ve worked hard. Again our bodies are being impulsed by an energy that is gleeful that we are independently choosing to trash ourselves.
To have got to the point where I realise that nothing is a coincidence, that nothing is random and that we are being shown where we need to develop by constant reflections around us, is a very liberating way to live life. There is no victimhood in this, only the what is next in terms of learning.
I have found myself questioning the comment “how insignificant we appear” when we are out in the magnificence of mother nature. I have said this myself and heard it said many times. While we may feel insignificant is this true and is this the purpose of the reflection of such magnificence of Mother Nature? My feeling is that the reflection is more about reminding us of our own magnificence and has nothing to do with our physical size.
There is so much surrender in our bodies when we stop judging and start understanding.
Wow, I have more focus and appreciation for my lungs…. that allow the in-breath and out-breath of God, and which allows me to move and be in life.
I love how you were willing to solve the ‘mystery’ about the smoke following you wherever you went. A beautiful revelation and very inspiring to not dismiss anything in life but to be open to understand and read it.
Awesome sharing Roberta – No matter what comes our way, there is a message or a learning for us to sit with, and the beauty in this is completed when we understand the message and the learning – the next step is when we put it into practice, for if not then the message will need to repeat itself again, till such time that we have truly stopped to listen and live it. Amazing really how patient life is with us! 😉
I recall as a child, around 7 or 8 yrs old, staying the night with some friends after a huge party they had had. I went to bed reasonably early and woke super early whilst everyone was still asleep. My friend and I got up to play but when we saw the mess the house was in and more so when we could smell all the stale alcohol bottles and the lingering cigarette smoke, I recall my stomach churning and feeling super nauseous and heading to the toilet to vomit. Funny how that stayed with me forever, and I was never drawn to smoking or smokey environments either. I recall the hazy grey air, thick and heavy to breath and how it stung my eyes too…It felt amazing to get outside into the fresh air and be free to breath. As a child I recall thinking this was not a way I wanted to live.
I love your willingness and openness to see what was there to be healed from your experience with cigarette smoke. What a blessing karma is Roberta, giving us the opportunity to heal ourselves and the effects we have on others, without judgement.
I was a chronic smoker for loads of years, looking back on this time, I can now see I was filling my lungs with smoke and filling my time with smoking so as to not feel the emptiness I felt being so disconnected from myself and God.
Me too Mary -Louise, it was beautifully easy to stop smoking, despite having been such a heavy smoker. Simply by making choices to be more loving first, to fill that emptiness and then relinquish smoking was just letting go of something that clearly did not belong.
It makes such a difference when we take responsibility and feel the deeper reason for what is happening to us instead of blaming others or circumstances. We then learn from the situation like you have Roberta and a healing occurs.
It seems on looking back over my lifetime of more than 76 orbits of the sun, and through much of my developing years, everyone ‘smoked’. Things are constantly changing as we become more aware and perhaps when I am in my 76th orbit around the sun we will be saying ‘everyone ate sugar’ in the same way we now reflect on ‘everyone smoking’. Sugar is incredibly harmful to the body, has almost the same chemical component as cocaine and yet we put it in almost all children’s cereals. Actually, in almost all processed foods, including roast chicken, prawns and tins of tomatoes to name but a few. So I wonder if in not so many years to come we will look back and be saying ‘we ate sugar, everyone did…..’
Roberta I remember “the ‘Marlboro man’ sharing his affinity with nature by riding a great steed until he finally stopped on reaching the top of the mountain. Then he would light up a cigarette and breathe something foreign deeply into his lungs, supposedly to more easily enjoy all that God in nature was offering!”
And as a child it struck me as a ridiculous advert because as you say why would anyone reach for a cigarette when they had such beauty surrounding them, just drinking in the sheer enormity of nature surely is enough?
It’s easy to think of smoking as really odd, sticking little ‘death sticks’ up to our mouth. But the more we start to read energy, we see that we’re always inhaling and emitting energy and a lot of the time it’s as toxic as any thick smoke. Seeing how we dull and self sabotage with poison, brings a lot more understanding to the way we smoke. Thank you Roberta.
Yes, I smoked for about 10 years and reflect now that this was the most lost and disconnected time of my life, when I felt separate from God and my own soul. It is beautiful to now feel the preciousness of every breath.
What a massive turnaround, from judgment to understanding what the imposition of smoking is trying to tell you. This was a reminder for me that if there are any ‘coincidental’ patterns that keep happening in my life, it is a chance to take a deeper look at what this means for me.
Hi Fiona, as I read your comment the words “…from judgment to understanding…” came to my attention and caused me to ponder on something that I learned along the way at a Universal Medicine presentation by Serge Benhayon and that was around the word ‘compassion’ – or having compassion for those that we may momentarily seemingly be in judgment, and seems to call on a deeper awareness of sorts, while that reference was to the true meaning of ‘compassion’ – ie. ‘understanding without attachment’. It seems that this is relevant to the subject of ‘judgment’ – a past behaviour that I was steeped in for all of those years of me supposedly being on the receiving end of the smoking habit.
I am in much appreciation of the deepening awareness via the ‘comments’.
How many people would have started smoking to fit in with their friends at that time? I tried smoking on my own when I was babysitting but chose not to continue.
Julie, I find your question quite relevant still – even now in our modern era. How many of our younger generation folk look ‘to fit in with their friends’ in one way or another – as the book title once said “we’re a weird mob’ – we humans – but Thank God for Serge Benhayon who is here at this time to present to us that there is another way to experience life as a human being – and I am discovering that way is The Way of The Livingness.
Julie, yes I did this, I tried smoking just to fit in, however, I am very happy to report that my body rejected that first cigarette which was my last, never to try again as I knew it was not for me. Wow this feels amazing to share the fact that I chose what was right for me over ‘fitting in’.
very humbling to read how you can come to being aware that past choices had led to experiences of “breathing in second hand smoke” instead of your own breath, and that with no judgement of any of these situations we can see the love in them, and choose to understand.
Yes Harrison, I agree – if we would ” …choose to understand.” I spoke with an older person in care yesterday who is suffering among other things ’emphysema’ – and this lady had not even tried a cigarette in her entire life – but the effects of her home and working environment for most of her life have resulted in this condition – interesting that it is termed ‘passive smoking’ – it can still result in the lungs being filled with a foreign substance, thereby actually preventing one to ‘breathe their own breath’. It seems we would find that we are truly delicate beings if we would but listen to our own body.
I so agree with your words Kathleen “Thank God for Universal Medicine.” One can but just imagine where we would be if we had chosen not to listen to Soul or come to know Serge Benhayon – a beautiful and wise man who suggested there may be another way to live life, and like many others I also found exactly what I had been searching for for so long – and it was right there all along – within.
That desperate need to be liked, accepted and part of the ‘gang’ that was cool has most people fooled. I certainly so sucked in and it was cigarettes that I was sucking on. To this day I am ridiculously thankful to have stopped such a loveless pattern but it has taken courage and dedication to self-loving myself and healing my hurts. It is with huge appreciation of Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine therapies.
Hi Natalie – how awesome that we can choose to emerge from our past wayward patterns and behaviours and lead with the front foot so to speak in walking a new way to nominating and healing our past hurts. It seems that often we have descended into these unloving ways to distract and unconsciously fill the void that is empty of self-love. How many lifetimes I wonder will we delay our re-connection with the divine being that we each truly are. So much to appreciate I am finding.
The reality of breathing Gods breath and the beauty and connection this allows us is something Universal Medicine is bringing to the world to remember and come back to who we really are. A beautiful sharing and understanding of our lives and what is going on and where we are going to in truth and the changes and reflections we are offered.
To repeat some of your words Tricia “The reality of breathing Gods breath and the beauty and connection this allows us….” brings to the fore the inspiration of all that transpires following this connection it seems. How simple really – one has to ask why has it taken us so very long to retrieve/remember this understanding. I am finding we are never too old, and it is never too late to be a student.
The smoke you talk of here is a metaphor for energy that we allow in. This can be the case with other substances, issues we allow to affect us, or other people’s emotions or opinions. Anything that is not love is a poison to the body, and we can absorb these just like the smoke. Observing is the key. If we can see things for what they are we are less likely to take them on, and there is always a message for us within them and a reason we are experiencing what is in front of us.
Rebecca, I love your reference to the awareness of “The smoke you talk of here is a metaphor for energy that we allow in.” I am finding there are many opportunities in any given day for us to observe and not to absorb the apparent and disturbing influences and inferences that abound – without judgment, sympathy or the need to know the answers to why? It seems that it is just that – ” The Way It Is”.
I have often wondered what made the first person smoke, I mean it does seem like a totally unnatural act and it does initially take some perseverance so why would someone think it is a good idea to actually build an apparatus like a pipe and stuff a leaf in it and light it up. Just shows there is an intelligence that is often not that intelligent driving us.
I love this Kev – indeed – who was it and where did the impetus to create such a habit come from – certainly not from our Soul as an inspiration – so the thought via the tool of the mind it seems must have come from outside of ourselves so many lives since past as a way to numb/dull the pain of life at that time – perhaps even long before opium pipes. Yes, one has to wonder at the type of intelligence that endeavours to over-ride our natural and full body intelligence that is connected to all that is divine.
There was a time in my life that my only incentive to get out of bed was to have a cigarette. Smoking cigarettes rather than breathing my own breath is hard to imagine this days! Thank God for Universal Medicine.
As a child with smoking parents I swore I would never smoke myself, then at school I learned how unhealthy it was. None the less I started smoking when I was 15, on a night that I felt particularly low and someone offered me a cigarette with the words that it would ‘pick me up’. I smoked for many years even though my lungs were protesting clearly. And yet I am not stupid. What I have come to learn is that smoking is not about smoking and not even about fitting in or ‘having something to do for our hands’ as was commonly commented on in those days. Smoking offers a temporary relief from the emptiness we feel within. It is this what we need to understand when we tackle the addiction to cigarettes.
I like the perspective you are offering here Roberta! Actually we are denying through smoking God’s breath through us, in other words denying or poisoning the perception that we are Gods.
You can choose to do things like smoking also to stand out and not belong. I always did not like it, when the other teenagers smoked because they wanted to be in the “cool” group and because everyone did it. I started when I was almost out of school and to actually not belong to the surrounding I was in. Looking back now I have to laugh, what we do, when we are not connected to ourself is very often so stupid and ridiculous. The “poor” body has to cope with our choices though all the time, waiting patiently until we listen to him.
I love your description of nature and how we stand in awe of it – showing how if we do not have any respect and honour towards our own body and the part we play in the grand whole we can dismiss it with a simply gesture as lighting up a cigarette.
Thank you Roberta. What a beautiful thing Karma is, showing us all our choices not in judgement but so we can heal, breathe and live the truth of who we are.
I agree Jane, it does seem strange – looking at those few words “..always looking to fit in..” I wonder why it is. Have we at times looked to be ‘recognised, acknowledged and accepted’ by family, friends, colleagues etc. by not ‘stirring the pot’, ‘rocking the boat’ etc. for the seemingly insane reason of being one of the crowd, security, or protecting ones self from retribution or judgement from others. How beautiful it would be if we all just connected to who we truly are and our choices were made from there.
I live in one of the countries where smoking is still very common. This is an issue of awareness. Having this reflection asks me to not hold back my own awareness in reflecting back to my whole country so that the breath of God can once again be breathed in again.
A great story to share about responsibility and the importance of breathing gentle to hold the connection to yourself and therefore God within.
I agree with you Rik – it is truly as simple as you say “…the importance of breathing gentle to hold the connection to yourself and therefore God within.” – when we have the awareness to choose so.
Thank you Roberta… this has certainly made me consider my own upbringing and relationship with smoking. I was what is now termed a ‘passive smoker’ for the first 18yrs of my life with both parents who smoked. It was normal in winter time for the lounge room to have a thick layer of smoke hovering below the ceiling… not healthy for anyone!
It is so beautiful Paula to reflect on where we have all come from, if only with the awareness of this life, to embrace and appreciate the natural wisdom of our body and its’ relationship with all that makes up the entirety of our participation and contribution to the greater Universe and how we can choose to see there is a different way to live – and I am finding my way as a continuing student of The Way of The Livingness. Speaking of the ‘pall of smoke’ as such in the childhood lounge room – makes one contemplate on what ‘pall’ of energy that encloaked others could it be that we have created in the past and left behind to impact our fellow human beings. Hmmm.
What a joy to read how this experience has helped you to appreciate the breath – and how as you develop your awareness and connection to the breath – that these incidents are less and less. Everything is everything, and it is lovely to read how you have explored what smoking is reflecting to you
This blog is a powerful reminder to apply these principles and deepen our awareness with everything in life that we are in reaction to – e.g. whether it is cigarette smoke, alcohol, food, TV, or exercising etc. is to appreciate that everyone is no greater or lesser, only at a different point in our return to re-membering who we are in essence.
“In these moments of revelation, I feel such appreciation for the gift of understanding of the possible truth of the situation; and I might add here that since then there have been fewer impositions from others casting their chosen habit upon my sensitivities. When it does occur, I feel it is but a reminder to treat all equally, without judgment – and to remember that we are all the Sons of God remembering who we truly are”.
All I can say is that it is great that we can go almost anywhere these days without being effected by second hand smoke, it is the craziest thing to do to ourselves and it seems total madness that for years nonsmokers had to put up with it even like in the underground, on trains and aeroplanes where you can’t choose to get away from it. I was a smoker for years and I didn’t have any idea of how obnoxious the smell was even though as a kid I remember almost choking on long car journeys with my dad puffing away.
It’s interesting to see how advertising of the past promoted smoking as stylish, modern and attractive.. to now today the cigarette packets containing images of disease parts of the body as a way to prevent smoking. Has anything really changed from this tactic? Or are we all still in great depths of grief in not breathing the naturalness and freshness of ourselves, understanding how far we have dropped from being the great love we are. Understanding brings healing towards cessation of that which is not of our true making.
Great point Zofia! All these shocking pictures did not change anything as the root cause of smoking gets not healed by it. Emotional desire is far greater than any visual shock could cause. Because the outcome of what we seek in smoking is bigger than any fear of getting sick. Showing how important it is to heal our hurts and look at our disconnection from our own divinity, as it lets us abuse ourselves in so many very different ways through patterns and behaviours, that we then call “bad habit”.
I love what you share about the movement of God that moves through our lungs. That is in fact the purpose of this organ within our bodies, beyond the functional aspect of enabling air for us to breathe and live. We live on one level – the physical one and need air to do so, but if we limit our existence to this, we have short-changed ourselves enormously.
We are so much more than physical, and when we surrender to our own breath, we do feel this. As our lungs ebb and flow within our diaphragm, we feel the exquisite delicateness that holds them, the warmth they imbue. We breathe God’s breath through our entire body.
How transforming our experience of life is when we bring this awareness, responsiveness and relationship to it. It removes the right, wrong, blame and shame.
Breathing our own breath is a beautiful way to re-connect to the body, feeling the rhythmic movement in the lungs as they expand and return. Why would we want to interfere with this connection with our natural divinity is a question worth considering.
I loved reading your article Roberta, so rich in experience and awareness. It reminded me of times past too, with the cigarette ads and the romanticism of ‘smoking’ in general. It is very true that our lungs “allow the flow – the flow of the very In-breath and the Out-breath of God.” Thank you.
How fascinating to have not been a smoker but have it follow you around. When things like this happen it can be hugely frustrating until we truly take a look at why.
This is a beautiful blog showing how much we were imposed upon by cigarette smoke in decades past. When I was young I simply accepted passive smoking as there really was no alternative and due to experiences such as asking somebody not to light up in the locker room after sport and receiving an explosion of rage and frustration in return.
The right to smoke and the outrage of smokers not being able to do it when they want to is now generally accepted as the abuse that it is. It took some time and over the years it was layer by layer. Perhaps one day we will see the same with other form of currently accepted abuse such what goes on in the cyber realm.
Christoph – on reflecting on your words “…asking somebody not to light up……” reminded me of the times when my children were very small and relatives would visit. A few of them, while in the activity of pulling out the packet from the pocket, in a flash the cigarette was on the lips, and the lighter poised to light while directing this puppy like gaze fleetingly in my direction”….oohh!! mind if I smoke??!! were mildly shocked when I said – “not in the house please.” I daresay, even back then without having an aware resonance with purpose, it seemed important to speak my truth in that moment.
Is it not amazing what we can uncover within ourselves when we stop judging and blaming but open up to the communication that is offered? Your insight about the smoke and the breath is beautiful Roberta and a great example of how we can us life to evolve back to our soul.
I agree Carolien, it seems one cannot afford to descend into complacency when we are so lovingly offered the Wisdom of the Ages. It is indeed beyond amazing when we consider the gifts that are extended and communicated to us in every moment that guide us on our way back Home to the true Love that we are, if we would but choose to let go the judging and the blaming.
There’s nothing like the purity I feel when connect with my breath and its rhythmic pulse within my heart. A rhythm that comes from my divine connection to life…
Thank you Amparo. there is much beauty and inspiration in your comment – a reflection for us all.
Life does not present us with anything that will not truly serve – and this is a lesson that at times I still resist.
Susan, this is a nugget of pure gold and yet so often we think that the world is stacked against us, rather than always in our favour.
Thank you Susan – I feel your words “Life does not present us with anything that will not truly serve….” holds a great truth. Those words make much more sense to me really than the old cliche that we hear often that ‘God will not give you more than you can handle!!’ Your words expressed seem to hold the energy of a greater purpose,.
Dear Roberta, I so enjoyed reading about your experience and growing understanding around cigarette smoke presenting around you. I love your openness, honesty and willingness to look deeper, and to share with us all. Indeed, everything that presents to us has a reason, and a message, if we are willing to choose to be aware of it. I do love your writing, so I hope to read more from you.
Hi Esther – I do appreciate your encouragement, and I love your words “….everything that presents to us has a reason, and a message, if we are willing to choose to be aware of it.” I can see more clearly now that there was quite a lengthy time span in which I was offered the opportunity to ‘choose’ to be aware of it. Interesting how many things hold more clarity in hindsight. I can almost imagine Sanat Kumar saying “what took you so long!!?” Lovingly and play-fully of course.
Thank you Jane. I appreciate your encouragement to express more –
Roberta, what a fascinating and engaging read throughout the decades .. it’s like a history lesson on the trail of smoking… it draws in well needed attention to the quality of air and breath we’re breathing under the smokey falsity of advertising/media … and all their drawn hype. What we draw in, we live to experience – the breath of true life, of God, or the breath of life’s manufacture.
Zofia – I love your reference and to quote your words “What we draw in, we live to experience-….” and I am learning that to ‘draw in’ or to ‘absorb’ can be applicable to many things, i.e. from yes, cigarette smoke – but also, the absorption of energy in its’ many forms as it passes through us all constantly whether via music, food, stimulating drinks or the plethora of behaviours of the world wide population etc. Much appreciation I feel as life continues and presents so many avenues of learning.
When life feels busy and for want of a better word intense, I love the support I feel from connecting to my breath, I feel safe when I am with my breath and able to handle whatever situation I am in.
That’s beautiful Fiona. Our breath is ours and we can choose how to breathe. The depth of connection we can have with ourselves through our breath enables us to feel safe and at home even when life gets tough. What a powerful tool.
Yes Fiona. If we would but remember we have a choice – it would seem we may choose to react in that moment or choose to reconnect to our breath – amazing isn’t it to reflect on the result of any choice in any given nano-second of a moment in time and space.
Extraordinary to be reminded of the influential “Marlboro Man”; the seductive glamour associated with smoking alongside todays stark health warnings, banned cigarettes displays and smoke free public spaces.
Yet all these measures to prevent and ban smoking is still not bringing the level of understanding to the root cause of the behaviour. The levels of packaging and stark advertising showing the harmful realities of smoking on our health has not changed the way people live.
Cigarette and cigar smoke has always really grossed me out and I personally never smoked. But this blog has really opened my eyes up to consider why I have always been so sensitive to others smoking, annoyed when in a situation where I can’t seem to get away from it, and in total judgement and criticism for the person smoking in my vicinity. I could certainly relate to what Roberta shared here in the way of a karmic interaction going on to allow me to let go of that judgement and have some understanding through reading why a particular person has gone to smoking in the first place, such as filling an emptiness in their lives with the smoke in their lungs instead of through self-loving acts.
Yes Michael – your words “….and have some understanding through reading why a particular person has gone to smoking in the first place….”brought back a recent scenario as I sat resting watching the sun rise a little more in-between a long beach walk and the trek back home, whereby a group of delightful young people, possibly late teens, emerged from the mornings’ surf to wash off the salt under the cold shower. Were sharing with me the joys of the waves that morning but each proceeded to light up a cigarette. I asked why they did that after their exhilarating experience surfing – the answer was, “that’s what we do after an all night party drinking”. Much light-hearted banter ensued.
Stunning blog Roberta you have so much to share and what I loved is that within your unfoldment and awareness with this you asked yourself the deeper question of why was smoke so vivid in your life and ‘Had I indeed participated in lives previously, in any number of incarnations, in preventing others from ‘Breathing in the Light of Christ’, the ‘Breath of God’ in a myriad of scenarios…?’ Within anything in life this is the question we need to ask ourselves, not to indulge in or ‘beat’ ourselves up so to speak but to truly heal. Very inspirational.
Thank you Vicky – yes, I agree that we are offered many opportunities in our everyday lives , where we may be witness to behaviours, verbal or physical abuse etc.- but how often do we actually feel/read the situation (and not react) and have revealed what the specific reflection is mirroring back to us to perhaps glean a deeper understanding of why such an event/awareness was there for any one of us to be alerted to in the first instance. I am learning to truly appreciate the learning in reflections.
I really appreciate what you’ve written here as I feel I can smell smoke from way down the street and sniff out offending behaviour before it’s seen. And I react strongly – hence the offending behaviour judgement. When it’s cannabis I smell my reaction is as strong and has a different flavour- that of fear. What is being reflected to me? The fear of me disconnecting from the love we are within. When people are stoned they aren’t with themselves and can walk around desensitised to life and the love they are. The reflection is asking me to stay present. I used to check out. People who are willing to see everything is like a life line to those out at sea so to speak.
Yes, I don’t like these smells either but thankfully today we almost always can go somewhere where there is no smoke and expectations have changed – it is not considered normal any more to light up in the presence of non-smokers.
A great example offered here that when we find the same issue in life keeps coming up for us, instead of getting annoyed with life and go into blame or resignation, we could similarly pay attention, observe and reflect in what messages and insights this may be offering for us to heal, expand our awareness and evolve.
Our interaction and experience in life is greatly enriched when we see and read beyond the obvious. There is so much more going on…. and this something I deeply appreciate in life.
When we fill our lungs or stomachs with things that don’t agree with us – poisons, toxins or smoke, it makes sense that our minds similarly become congested with toxic thoughts. Looking after our physical health is most certainly a way to look after our mental health.
When I was young both my parents smoked and my mother who is long gone and back again had the most horrendous smokers cough and this was enough to put anyone off cigarettes, plus the smell that lingers on clothes and any fabric. However my parents came from that generation that was encouraged to smoke as a way to relax, to get through the stresses of the war. Little did anyone realise the damage smoking was having on their extremely sensitive lungs. It does seem an odd pastime to hand over a lot of money to buy something that inflicts so much harm on our bodies?
Inspired as I read this article to bring my awareness to my in-breath and out-breath and consider the quality of this cycle and its relationship with the Universe. Thank you, Roberta.
Thank you Roberta, it’s an interesting concept to allow people the space to breathe their own breath, and to not impose on their ability to reconnect to who they are.
Life has become an imposition, constantly hindering our ability to re-connect to the truth of who we are.
My body is highly sensitive to cigarette smoke, I get a headache almost instantly when I smell it. This tells me that everyone is equally sensitive to cigarette smoke because it is not natural for us to breathe in polluted air.
Well how fascinating! We can’t escape the messages from our souls! I absolutely love how clear and obvious our souls are at delivering what is needed for us to understand and heal.
As a child my parents smoked heavily and I remember well the wall of smoke/separation that smoking brought. Lighting up a cigarette seemed to be a way for them to have a moment to themselves, irrespective of how short that was and a way to keep the kids at bay.
Thank you Roberta, I very much enjoyed reading your blog and how you went from feeling a judgement of those who smoke to a true understanding of yourself and what was being reflected for you to learn. This is true healing.
I love what you share about the law of karma. I have come to understand that ‘nothing is nothing’ and the fact that you were followed by cigarette smoke all your life is showing a deeper message. For some, whilst this might be too ‘out there’ as a consideration, I have also come to understand that nothing is a coincidence and that everything is perfectly set up to show us a learning so that we can let go of the past and move forward anew.
I am finding that to be so true Rachel. Thank you.
Whether you choose to smoke or not smoke it is always about breathing your own breath. I smoked for years and am not smoking now for years but did not stay with myself either way. This has changed with using the Gentle Breath Meditation and starting to change the way I lived by re connecting with the Ageless Wisdom.
I love your awareness since young of the fact of the universe and that we are innately a part of it. How great to connect to whole body intelligence and feel your part in it in a different way. We attract what we need to look at – no coincidence.
It is very wise to look at any reoccurring circumstance and decipher why it is happening and what part we play in it. I was always wondering why I used to attract the most unreliable employees to my business and it was pointed out to me that it was a refection of how I have never fully committed to life or my business myself. Now that was an ouch!
Roberta you asked this wonderful question: “. . . was it from the mind – that is, the computer of the body with the information gathered from a myriad of sources outside of myself – or was it from the intelligence of my whole body, from the cells of my being, that part of me that is at one with the entirety of the universe?” I love it as you offer a new way to feel our bodies . . . we are all part of the universe, we are never alone because with our in-breath and out-breath we are connected with everyone and with god – WOW
I love how with sharing your story Roberta, we are all offered an example of how with observation and taking notice of reflections we can understand every thing that happens around us. Understanding is like a dissolvent for judgement… we simply melt when love is re-introduced into any situation.
I love this ‘understanding is like a dissolvent for judgment’ – a point of inspiration to bring understanding into our relationships with ourselves and others always.
I loved reading about your life and how life was at the time that people were allowed to smoke everywhere. I never considered how bad it must have been to have people smoke in public areas, something that now is not allowed anymore.
It’s hard to believe Lieke that smoking was literally accepted everywhere. In places like work, while sitting at our desks puffing away or even in the hospitals. Buses had ashtrays in them and restaurants had one section for non-smoking and one for smokers – the smoke did not adhere to the room segregation. So, being a non-smoker I have welcomed the no smoking policy but back in those days, we didn’t think that much about it. So it just goes to show how much we accepted the unhealthy lifestyle of others or maybe we did not see it as being unhealthy.
When I was really young, I saw people around me smoking and assumed it was something cool to do, picking up on the sense of carelessness and irresponsibility in the action – I used to try and replicate the motion of having something in my mouth and looking ‘cool’. My mum spoke to me about how bad smoking was for you, but when it didn’t seem to register with me, so she took me to visit a family member who had smoked almost their whole life and was suffering for it in their older age, and asked to give me one of her cigarettes. I was maybe 5 or 6 at the time, and I took the cigarette, took one puff and apparently turned a shade of green and coughed my lungs up. All my ideas about smoking being cool and something to copy flew out the window, eclipsed by my bodies reaction and my innocent and honest ability to acknowledge what it was communicating to me and I have never looked back, never again considered smoking.
What foresight your mum had Rebecca, and you at such a beautiful age to confirm everything your little body knew – that you were far too precious and connected to the taste of God’s breath to want otherwise.
This was a timely read as I am currently in a situation where I am surrounded by a sound that I find very repulsive and have an extreme reaction too. I have not yet come to the understanding of why it is so in my face but this allowed me to contemplate what is going on more.
Has all of this activity of having experienced the imposition of cigarette smoke affecting my health and my life actually been my Soul offering me clarity; a deeper understanding of the separation that is created, and of what it is in truth to breathe the Light and the Love that is the Christ Energy? There is great wisdom here Roberta, that your soul has led you to, very beautiful and a reflection of absolute love from soul.
Several times a year we would visit my mothers’ relatives, and at any one time there would be about four adults smoking in the living room with the windows and doors closed, and the air would be thick with smoke. There was no mention of passive smoking in those days or cancer-related to smoking cigarettes; in fact, it was quite the opposite as people were encouraged to smoke to relax.
“As a 5-year-old I felt the breath of the trees, sky and the stars inside my lungs.” This conjures up the most beautiful illustration Roberta, love it.
Yes, so gorgeous….look forward to seeing that illustration Rosanna.:)
Still chuckling and enjoying your light hearted humour in the midst of the understanding of being at one with the Universe when in nature. Begorrah!
“Hardly a sound – just standing in awe on the open deck of the cruise ship as it glided silently through the velvety smooth deep and dark water”. How humbling. How insignificant we can appear, but at the same time pondering on the possibility that we are all made of the same stuff, the elements, the particles of everything of the Universe. Then begorrah! The man in front of me lights up a cigarette, puffing his pungency into this pristine air…”
Thank you for this wonderful blog! I too grew up with the reflection of smoke in my life and even now, when it is not celebrated I have it in my life as a reflection too. What you have shared here has offered me a moment of pause to consider what the reflection is for me, and to bring greater understanding for those who are smoking. I thought I already did that, yet what you have share, has given me a fresh perspective which feels very true.
Reaction and judgment keeps us a victim and fighting the situation. What is shown so beautifully here, when we are willing to be open, honest and surrender to the possibility that there is a reflection for us to learn from, great wisdom and empowerment can unfold.
I remember so vividly having to force myself to inhale even with the burning pain sensation. Smoke was obviously something my body did not want to have in its lungs.
I can remember my Mum giving me a cigarette to try when I was eleven. I took one puff and have never wanted to take another. It was the most horrible feeling that I had ever had at that point in my life. Knowing just how horrible it is, it makes me consider just what is it that makes something that tastes and feels horrible become such an addictive substance. For one has to deny everything their body is saying when we take that first puff to be able to take another.
Such honesty and dedication to understand life that has been revealed in this article is a blue print to follow, especially if understanding and responsibility is ones true motivation.
It’s fascinating what you’ve shared Roberta about how cigarette smoke became such a large part of your life that you felt it on your tail even when you weren’t smoking yourself… When we start a habit or behaviour are we prepared for the long term consequences and how this might affect us?
Roberta this is such a rich sharing, not just in the descriptive way that you have shared your story but also in the depth of your understanding.
Although I use to smoke over 12 years ago today I get to feel the clarity in my lungs and the sensitivity in my smell. Today smoke smells stale and lingering. I wonder why when we are young we never think of how our bodies will be 40 years on from our choices. I can say I was ignorant of even thinking how I was inhaling fire/smoke and that that just should never be in the human body. It’s even crazy to think that our medical profession years ago once recommended it for relaxation. How do we as so called intelligent human beings not consider the simplicity of the matter and join the dots.
It’s beautiful to look at things that have interlaced our life and the teaching they have to impart to us.
It is so telling that once we become open to the learning that is being offered e.g. in being imposed on by another’s cigarette smoke then these incidences naturally diminish.
An article that inspires us to reflect on our own lives and learn from those irritants and niggles that unbalance or cause us to react.
We all know that smoking is not good for us and when we try it for the first time our lungs are clear to tell us so. To get to understand, truly why we choose it and to understand the vast connection we are missing which keeps us in the habit will support us to break the habit.
Roberta what a beautiful moment of taking what you felt as impositions and allowing yourself the space to observe and learn from what you were offered. It is not so much what happens to us in life but what we do with what appends that counts.
An amazing sharing of our breath and our connection to God through the reflection offered to us in smoking and the effects on our body and our health . A life long observation and learning made sense of by Serge Benhayon and our whole body intelligence in connection and with our soul as our guiding light and our journey with this . A beautiful reading and understanding of the effects of smoking and the separation in the world to be healed.
Horrifying as it may seem, Public Health England yesterday announced its endorsement of selling of e-cigarettes in hospitals, condones their use indoors and in hospital beds. The report also recommends that e-cigarettes be offered on prescription on the NHS free of charge. Here we have one ill, replaced by another. Both deny the body the opportunity to simply connect to and breathe in God’s breath.
What a huge insight the passive smoking has enabled you to have, and I note that since you have been able to understand the significance of what it all means, that you have been less imposed upon. I love how life reflects and reflects until we get it and then moves on to another lesson.
Amazing blog Roberta with so much wisdom in it. I love the way you describe the sacred movement of our lungs breathing in the breath of God and perhaps when our breathing is challenged in any way in terms of outside influences or an illness it is a reminder to us to really appreciate and deepen our awareness of this constant connection we all have with divinity.
It just goes to show that if something is in our face so often, we cannot keep blaming others but have to look at what ever reflection is on offer to assist us in our return to God.
Yes and that the responsibility starts with our next move.
Thank you Roberta for your eloquent writing. Your description of the icebergs is fantastic, with the crisp clear air around them. I would love to experience this and to see the light that plays off of them as they majestically float through water. And to be there knowing that all is made of the same elements and particles, that we are all part of the same giant oneness.
When we heal and have understanding of the bigger picture in life we say yes to that which is on offer. It is then we truly embrace life and evolve.
Having been a smoker for more years than I have so far lived I now know that smoking was a ‘smoke-screen’ behind which I hid from the truth of my feelings and the stresses of life. Hiding from them did not lessen them, only numbed me. Stepping out from behind the fog I have stepped into the light and the breath of God to discover that my feelings are not to be feared nor the stresses of life.
Roberta, this is a great point, what are we role modelling to children by drinking and smoking. Children look to us for guidance and it seems that we are saying ‘its ok to put these poisons into your body, we all do it’; ‘A child may well wonder, but looks to the adults in their world for guidance – after all, the adults are supposed to know it all.’
As an ex-smoker I can now fully appreciate just how much I had to override my body in order to smoke and the reasons why I hated myself so much in order to even consider it in the first place. It is a totally alien and anti-life thing to do to our bodies, but if our pain, grief and sadness is great enough, is the only thing that will quell these emotions. As I have come to address and heal these hurts and emotions through Universal Medicine, so I have come to love my body, breath and lungs and can never, ever foresee myself smoking again, as now there is nothing painful within me that I need to smother up again.
It is a good thing to remember that we are all sons of God and in that equal and are here together to help each other to live our divinity in full. But until that time we may get frustrated by what people are reflecting to us but actually is there for us to learn and heal that what we have let unresolved.
One of the most valuable things we can re-learn in life is how to ‘breathe our own breath’. As children we seem to breathe this way effortlessly until such a time that we adopt a way of breathing, due to the seeming pressures of the world we as humans have created, that is no longer in sync with what you have so gorgeously expressed Roberta – ‘the breath of the trees, the sky and the stars’.
Returning to this interconnectedness is the path of evolution for all of us, so that our lungs once more breathe in tune with ‘the breath of God’ that flows through us all.
I had to laugh while reading your description when people were smoking their cigarettes. It is so weird now and it was so normal back then!
Is this not a wonderful example of how most of us were and are not living in connection with our bodies? Fortunately we are more on our journey back these days to get our sense back that our body is so much more.
Thank you for writing this. I know I’ve been reacting to walking down the street and inhaling other people’s smoke but never given it attention when it’s a reflection for me I’ve been ignoring. I just thought I was sensitive to the smoke, which is so but there is more to it than this that your blog highlights. I must ask myself how I am living? I am surrendering to the ‘flow of the very In-breath and the Out-breath of God?’ The answer is not to the depth that is on offer. I wonder if i’m being shown there is an all encompassing love that is there for us all – whether we breathe it or not, it is there to be lived at any time.
We often don’t realise the poison that we’re choosing until we’ve stopped and can look back on just how much dis-ease it caused us and our body. This is why relationships and support are so important, so that we can guide each other back on track when we have been led astray or enticed by a particular distraction or tool to numb.
Roberta Awesome blog and really enjoying all that you have to say .. reading this I know there are many many more blogs you could write about so many topics and your experiences of them. I smoked from 14 to early 30’s and like most people hated it when I first tried it but just persevered!!!
How non-sensical that is to even though something feels disgusting keep trying it! We have moved quite a way from cigarettes being advertised as being a ‘good’ thing and people smoking in offices, planes, cinemas.
Basically everywhere to now understanding just how harming it is on the health for not only the person smoking but those around them. Reading this ‘Like a Peregrine falcon smelling prey from miles away, I could smell cigarette smoke’ I feel exactly the same but with weed you can smell it a mile away and so many more people seem to be smoking this when walking on the street or driving.
What you share about the reflections smoking offers and the fact that it is equally about you too is a level of responsibility most are not willing to see much less embrace. It is all too easy to point the finger without realising that we have a part in it too. But as with anything in human life nothing is truly learnt from finger pointing.
Stunning article Roberta. One that speaks of the Science of Reflection but also the Science of Responsibility and how both of these are never about punishment but about helping us see our own wayward ways and return to the love that we are. All very loving. Thank you.
Roberta, I love this story. So eloquently written and with so much humour and awareness. I had never considered cigarette smoke to be inhibiting me from breathing the breath of God. I suppose the same can be said of traffic fumes, odours, and other people’s chosen perfume. It can be invasive. But as you say we need to accept the reflection and allow people the freedom to make their own choices. With this acceptance we become closer to God.
“I took the time to nurture myself a little more and be more aware of the deep intelligence that comes from the whole body.” There is such a deep intelligence that comes from our whole body, but you do have to tune in to listen to it. And by taking deeper care of your body, it is easier to hear these messages that it so lovingly shared with us.
Life is pretty amazing in what it reflects back to us. When we find ourselves reacting to someone else’s behaviour, there is always something to learn- an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and in that, all of humanity.
Appreciating and bringing understanding to all that comes our way is a powerful and deeply profound way of living.
Yes I completely agree. Reading life on a much deeper level as Roberta has shown in her blog means that we learn what is being offered to us rather than just being caught in the superficial reactions to what is happening.
You mention the old smoking ads and it is pretty crazy how we used to glorify smoking and the ‘joy and freedom’ it brings. But it is still slipped into movies now – seen as a statement and a luxury – when in truth we are directly harming our body – our lungs that represent the in and out breath of God.
Perhaps another vice from humanity that blatantly rejects the truth that we know of where we truly come from and how divine we are.
Roberta, I love how you are so open to seeing your part in everything that happens to you, it seems that there are no coincidences, that everything in life offers a reflection and something for us all to learn from.
Our breath is so important, and when the breath is compromised in some way or another, then we get to feel how much an impact it can have on us. I have had coughs in the past, including getting bronchitis and even pneumonia. In those times when the breath is compromised to this point, it is like our whole life comes to a slow motion or almost a standstill, and we get to feel how foundational this is to life. When you cannot breath or cannot get enough oxygen into you, it leaves you short to do anything else other than stay focused on your next breath, your body gets drained and exhausted very quickly and easily. And these are only the physical aspects, as energetically there is so much more going on with our denial or our lack of appreciation of the magic of God that abounds around us. Every breath is key as is so many other things in life, but why is it that we don’t stop to appreciate them deeply until such time that they may be taken away from us? Perhaps this in itself is the learning as Roberta has so wisely shared in this blog – appreciation appreciation appreciation!
Roberta, I love how you have presented that as you went deeper in appreciation and was able to understand the truth of the situation, then it was less and less in your face! This makes sense, and this realisation holds much power – in terms of us all being able to ‘use’ this as a tool to support us with any situation that we are confronted with. Appreciation is a key aspect in life and to understand life itself and feel the blessings that are constantly on offer is a Gold we can all hold dearly at any time. Thank you once again Roberta for your wise words and sharings.
A great point. The appreciation of the lesson is important. If we are too busy being angry and annoyed with people we miss the lesson.
I love the way your blog started off by such a basic everyday irritation with the situation you kept finding yourself and took me into a journey of observation and exploration ending with a much greater possibility of awareness and space. Thank you.
Awesome sharing Roberta – I love the way you write, and the way you share things…behind those fingertips of yours, and with your life experiecnes, lies a few books to be expressed, me says…Thank you!
I’ve never looked at our relationship with smoking from this angle before, but I can relate to having an aversion to cigarette smoke and eventually developing asthma. Now I am asking myself about all the years that I actively hated being anywhere near people that smoked and how I would become very grumpy – obviously didn’t want to see what the reflection was.
Smoking just never worked with my body. I tried it 2 times, but didn’t like it, but also simply couldn’t do it, I started coughing straight away and everything inside said NO. No wonder, just like you wrote:
‘every particle in our body is one with all that is in the universe.’
I remember sitting in the chicken shed after buying our first packet of 10 Number 6 with my cousin, must have been aged 10 or so? I remember having to force smoke myself through the 5 cigarettes – in those days any one of any age could buy cigarettes, even children. Things have come a long way in one sense, but the point is still being missed, the packs are covered in cancerous ills, but maybe it’s time for a different awareness that involves the breath of God.
I agree Rosanna, the pictures covering cigarette packets aren’t deterring those that choose to smoke… could it be that the very reason some smoke is because they don’t see themselves as the sons of God they are. So the pictures just support them to think even less of themselves, as it is just another thing they are not so called ‘good’ at or doing well with.
I found cigarettes to be something that would sooth my pain. The trick is that you keep coming back because soothing something is not healing anything.
Very True. Our pain is caused by falling out of rhythm with our true breath. Hence the tension created within us and the subsequent ‘need’ that is born from the desire to quell this tension, without taking the necessary steps to ensure that we only breathe our true breath (return to who we truly are). The activity of not breathing our true breath leads to the path of addiction, be it cigarettes, food, emotions, behaviours etc. While the activity of beginning to reclaim and restore our true breath, is the path of evolution.
Very true. And also it can cause a secondary or third stage problem in the body such as lung cancer.
I agree Michael, often people describe cigarettes as their best friend or the thing to go to in order to relax and relieve stress. The effects of the soothing are only good for a short while and then you get to feel again.
This is what I see with the vapour sticks too, they are a object used to self soothe, no different from a toddler using a blankey or a dummy when they feel unsure or unsettled by something. I didn’t smoke but I sure used food, emotions, TV, drama and bulimia in just the same way. And self soothing in this way didn’t heal anything either. Reading situations for what they are eliminates judgement.
I can so relate to cigarette smoke following everywhere. I used to smoke and I never liked the smell and now that I don’t smoke I had the every right to judge and condemn those who do… that’s what I thought. What I found is that the more I judge and react, the more intense and frequent my encounter with the smoke became. Then it occurred to me that I thought the smoke was imposing, but there I was finding it impossible to accept others’ choice and holding my choice not to smoke as a kind of holier than thou superiority, imposing my preference onto them.
I remember when I started to smoke as a daily habit. It was because of alcohol. Both I did with no control or respect and decency towards myself. I did it whenever I wanted to do it. Its still similar now with alternative though nuts. There is no stopping me when I want to eat them. I will never eat them at work, however, after work I will eat (smoke) when I want to. When there is not a strong enough way of living that confirms who you are in your connection, that connection can be severed to the familiar way of being less – the easy and comfortable way of the wayward human spirit.
Oh my word yes! Of course, we all have our own ways of severing that connection to breathing the breath of the Universe and knowing we are an equal part of it. I am starting to realise this is because we know, deep inside, that if we breath that breath and acknowledge we are part and parcel of that Universe, there is a responsibility to match its grandness in the way we live. Our movements and the resulting choices have a ripple effect on others whether those consequences are seen or unseen
There is so much more to life than meets the eye, and this blog is a great example of this. Not all is as it first seems.
There is so much to learn if we are willing to see our reactions as an invitation to go beneath the superficial and look more deeply.
Smoking is such an insidious habit. Now cigarettes are being taken over by vapour sticks which will most likely be found out also to be vey harmful to our bodies. It is deemed cool to partake of this habit and needless to say many will be forcing themselves to take this up and spend their money on vapour trails which affect us all. I, like you Roberta, used to smoke even though I knew it was a crazy thing to do. When we start to appreciate our bodies and bring awareness to how they and we feel it means that abandoning smoking is only a matter of time.
In the news yesterday, the NHS stated they going to start issuing vapour sticks along with nicotine patches on prescription to aid in stop smoking because they are 95% less harmful than cigarettes. Both aids contain nicotine, that is a class A poison. I smoked for over half of this life and I now fully appreciate every breath I take.
What a beautiful exploration of the layers of separation we can experience in life, when we reject the essence of who we truly are.
” and to remember that we are all the Sons of God remembering who we truly are. ”
Thats it ,very simply , our life purpose to remember who we truly are and live it, thanks for sharing Roberta
I can testify that having lived with chronic asthma for 33/34years of my life, (I thought it was something I would have for the rest of my life) it completely healed when I reconnected back to God. I know it is a bold statement to make and, to some, this might seem ‘way out there’, nutty to boot, completely delusional, a co-incidence and a convenient story… but it is the fact of my experience. The shift into realising we are more than temporal life, that God does in fact exist and knowing the simplicity of re-connection via the breath and stillness that can be felt in my body when I do the gentle breath meditation, plus clearing the grief out of my lungs due to separation, has meant a full healing for my lungs. Not the slightest wheeze even with the heaviest of colds… this to me is a miracle. I am now 47 and have lived 13 years without asthma.
That’s very inspiring to read, I can feel the absolute truth in what you share. I suffered mild asthma as a child when doing sport and it is around this time that I really shut down my connection to the universe and chose a path of self destruction and numbing. Reconnecting to the delicate movements of my in breath and my out breath has certainly supported a deeper knowing of my divinity and everything you share makes perfect sense to me. I’d be interested to know if you ever suffered from eczema too, as often they go hand in hand.
Roberta this is a deeply inspiring blog to read. I love the detail and appreciation you bring in describing the vast and pristine beauty of nature that you experienced in your world-wide travels – a complete contrast to the cigarette smoke that tracked you down the years!
“Our adventures took us to both ends of this earth, North and South Pole. Many of us have experienced the pristine air of these areas and we stood in awe at the sight of the majestic, gigantic icy monoliths, the icebergs of Antarctica within hand’s reach almost, glistening blue from the oxygen held within. It was such a sight – passengers rugged up looking colourful in their rainbow array of padded jackets, fluffy hoods and mittens in the bitter cold of this crisp and clean air”.
I love the way you describe your initial impressions of smoking Roberta. In many ways it is true that even though we might not inhale tobacco we are all giving off ‘fumes’ in a powerful energetic way. It’s less about the brand of cigarette and more about how much of God’s Love we choose to let in. Thank you for taking the reflection of smoking so much deeper.
Smoking falsely and temporarily fills the emptiness we are living away from our true inner grandness.
Wow Roberta! Every particle in my body is responding to your words about the intimate and harmonious flow of the breath being experienced as a Sacred Movement through the lungs as being a connection to God. Thank you – Goosebumps all up my arms!
“It seems to me now that the sacred movement within our lungs reflects the beauty and divinity of the closeness of our connection to the universe and the stars for they, the lungs in form, allow the flow – the flow of the very In-breath and the Out-breath of God”.
I love connecting to this inner depth and beauty during Sacred Movement. There are always new depths to feel, appreciate and confirm the truth of who we all are innately so.
Thank you, Roberta. I love how you have captured here the purpose of the lungs in constantly breathing God in everyday life.
Every breath of ours either breathes the intensity of life around us or our natural surrender breathe. And which one is our choice through how we move and treat ourselves, our bodies. Do we live with space and surrender in our lives or do we live the stress and the issues inside us.
I started smoking at 11 when I went to boarding school as a way of fitting in and rebelling against the myriad of rules that covered every aspect of our days but I was never a regular smoker because I was constantly developing coughs as my lungs clearly communicated their discomfort. Despite this I persisted in being an intermittent smoker for the next 20 years or so often at times of ‘stress’ when I did not want to feel the truth of a situation. Whilst I can still shy away from feeling what is true I have much more supportive ways of healing any feelings of disconnection and coming back to my body since attending Universal Medicine presentations.
Cigarette smoke is indeed offensive to the body. But as you’ve beautifully shared I cannot judge another if I too have disturbed another’s breath. Many of us hold our breath or change rhythm when emotionally impacted on or stressed. I can say that I have incited this in myself and in others. It’s no different to the person who smokes.
Very true Leigh. When we become aware of our movements and the impact they have on those around us it knocks out any judgement I may have had towards another. It’s not that I don’t call things out but life is observed and seen in full with understanding.
Roberta what great insight into how everyone in society was living, well nearly everyone, how it was normal yet it was against everything our body has been telling us. What we once accept as normal is very un-normal. No doubt in generations to come we will look back and see the ‘normal’ life we live today to be the gross abusiveness it actually often is.
Smoking is to me one of the greatest and most obvious testament to the fallacy of human intelligence – in the beginning, touted for its benefits and relaxing qualities, the money made was raked in and possible harm done was ignored in favour of the cash. No one took the simple and obvious step to question the past time of smoking until it was too late and whole generations where weighed down by the resulting illnesses and respiratory diseases finally proven beyond doubt to be linked to smoking. Why did it take so long to put two and two together – that inhaling a foreign smoke into delicate lungs would not do them good, let alone a smoke more full of chemicals than a laboratory.
Roberta thank you sharing so much, so there are so many gems in what you have written. The simple fact of appreciating that whatever comes up for us or is before us is here for us to learn and to show us something so we can live more of the love we are is a real blessing in itself as it takes away the trying and the wanting to be better.
I love your exploration of cigarette smoking Roberta, whenever I smell cigarette smoke I hold my breath for as long as I can – especially if it’s weed – but I love your philosophy that it could be a great lesson in learning that the quality of how we breath does not need to change no matter what situation we’re in.
I love the way you describe breathing in nature and the universe. There is a universal breath we can sense all around us.
Absolutely gorgeous blog to read Roberta. This blog took me back to my childhood where everyone smoked. It was stifling to be amongst all the smoking at parties, in restaurants, on public transport, in the office, and in the car when people willy-nilly would light up. In fact, I recall our family doctor chain smoking whilst stitching up my sister’s split chin. He died of lung cancer quite young. I’m afraid to say that I enjoined at 16 after choking and vomiting for when you are smoking yourself you don’t notice it so much but when I was pregnant and not smoking just a hint of smoke would upset me and give me a whooping headache if I was exposed long enough to it. There was an old saying that when like this- “when you are a smoker the whole world is your ashtray”. So it was possibly my karma for using the world as my ashtray previously.
This is so beautiful, a gorgeous reflection and ponder that is universal and majestic in it scope. The lungs, our breath, the in and out of God’s breath.
Thank you Roberta for casting a new light on why we can be affronted by habits we no longer chose, but may well have indulged in heavily in a previous lifetime. Learning to cherish the beautiful motion of breathing and tender delicacy of this essential life giving activity supports us to re-build a loving relationship with our best friend and barometer of life and in doing so, reveal to our selves all the places where we abandoned God long ago.
I remember being able to smoke on planes, in bars and restaurants and even lying in a hospital bed, when you are a smoker you have no idea how much it stinks especially stale smoke on someone’s breath or clothes. Its unbelievable to look back at how acceptable smoking was and how much the poor non-smoker had to put up with.
I also remember those times! The church and courts were on the short list of the few places you could not smoke. The odd people were the ones that did not smoke. As time passed, the discovery of the effects on non-smokers in these smoke-filled environments came to light. Like all things in nature; we evolve or become extinct.
As a child I remember hating the smell of smoke and not understanding why anyone would want to smoke, looking back though over the years. Although there was an innate knowing that smoking was harmful to the body and not something I would want to chose it came with judgement and eventually I succumbed to fitting in and tried smoking a second time whilst drinking a beer on a beach. The taste was hideous but I worked to overcome this as a way to ‘fit in’ and find coping mechanisms to deal with my sensitivity.
I caught myself judging yesterday when I saw a boy out of school hours smoking. It was not something I see or come across often these days but this particular constellation as I drove past him and his friend who wasn’t smoking stood out. What I sensed within myself was a disappointment, a hurt arising of ‘how can you do that to your body!’ a lack of accepting and understanding on my part where he was at. The constellations that come our way are by no means never a coincidence and when we see what is on offer for us to learn we stop repeating the cycle. We are constantly being held and supported to return to the love we are.
An absolutely brilliant blog Roberta. I have felt anger and judgement towards smokers many times when I felt imposed upon by the smoke they created. At times I considered that it would be karma as I had smoked throughout my teens until my early 30s and it made me aware of how my habits would have impacted others. Your blog shows me that there is so much more to feel and see whenever we react to a situation.
I agree Leonine, “…there is so much more to feel and see whenever we react to a situation.” The penny dropped so to speak, for me, when I felt the revelation of another understanding – that it was not necessarily ‘smoking’ as such, that had perhaps in a past time been inflicted or imposed upon another, but any form of imposition no matter what that imposition was – that caused another to have their ‘connection’ quashed, and the ability to breathe their own breathe diminished. Even a level of indoctrination, of ‘brow-beating’ etc. was felt = so one could ostensibly see the possibility indeed of a myriad of ways to prevent another breathing in the Light of the Christ Energy.
Nothing happens by accident. A powerful reflection that communication is occurring all the time.
Yes Jonathan – I agree. Another power-full reminder that it is all about choice – the choice to perhaps turn up the ‘volume’ so to speak, that we may hear more truly the communication being offered by God for each and every one of us.
There are many, many problems and challenges in the world today but it is an opportunity to appreciate that in many countries smoking is no longer permitted in aeroplanes, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, offices and public buildings.
Mary, thank you for bringing to the fore in your comment the natural attribute of ‘appreciation’. I remind myself of the appreciation I have for this wondrous opportunity to learn, clear and heal from the incidents as described in my blog about the impact that cigarette smoke had on my on-going health – in this life. I also appreciate immensely the learning and the love that I feel from the comments expressed in relation to the article.
Truly awesome and all-encompassing: karma, reflection, whole-body intelligence and The Ageless Wisdom. Our lungs are divinely connected to the all we are a part of and cannot be but a part of.
Yes Gabriele, I am coming to understand more clearly that we are intrinsically a part of the all, and not apart rom the all.
I have found that the simple, but at the same time profound, act of breathing in out is such a precious movement, one that we have done a countless number of times throughout our lives. I have discovered this preciousness as a result of finally discovering what was behind the breathing issue that I had had for many years, one where I would often hold my breath preventing myself from breathing out so I could once again breathe in. I have slowly come to realise that by this pattern of breathing I was not allowing myself to truly acknowledge the divinity in each breath and how I was depriving myself of the glory that was being offered to me in every moment.
Wow Ingrid. What a beautiful revelation. It causes me to reflect on the possibility that some types of ‘sleep apnea’ may possibly be worth deepening our awareness of. I was monitored a couple of years ago and it was found I stopped ‘breathing’ during the night study at the hospital many many times – supposedly involuntarily, but could there be an element of perhaps what you describe ‘”…..by this pattern of breathing I was not allowing myself to truly acknowledge the divinity in each breath…..etc.”
Absolutely Roberta. I have always worked in industries where smoking is not only normal but seen to be a necessity. Many of my close friends smoke. I have never imposed on their choice because it is always be felt as a judgement. If the breath of God—divinity is what impulses the love within us to return to our truth, the first environment to provide this germination is to not have judgment. To express our feelings but to be that in equality.
I so love how you have expressed your choice of non-imposition of your own knowing in relation to ‘judgement’. “….divinity is what impulses the love within us to return to our truth, the first environment to provide this germination is to not have judgement.”
What an amazing story and revelation at the end. As I got to the bit about karma and your understanding of the breath of God, I suddenly found my body taking a big deep clear fresh breath – it was like I was being breathed – very lovely!
Yes Nicola, I feel I too am reminded to be “…taking a big deep clear fresh breath….” each early morning walk along our beach front. I feel the magic of God as I become more aware of my in-breath and my out-breath, and I find the opportunity to reflect on this connection within abounds in all of nature. How blessed I feel we are – much to appreciate.