I was feeling tired and wonky (my breath felt very much stuck in my throat) the other day. So, I decided to go for a breath walk on a local path. The snow was fresh. The sky was cotton candy blue. But, I didn’t really take these attributes in until halfway through the walk.

About the time, when I felt my breaths slow down and my overthinking squirrel brain settle some more. I started to notice the sound of my feet as they crunched in the snow (one of the best natural element’s to elicit calm) instead of replaying out potential scenarios. I started to notice the way the snow played with the sunlight on the pine’s limbs instead of worrying about the notifications pinging away about headlines I could not control.

As we wade through the season of the exhale hold, it is only fitting to highlight a collaboration rooted in seasonality with Samar Jade, the Ensoulment Doula! Samar's work is one that invites you to transmute, emerge, molt and move into darkness to transform and accept your Soul and Self. The work I have done with them in a voice workshop and in their community, Letting Chiron Sing, have reminded me that the joy Slo Breathworks centers is not an antithesis to the molting and darkness but another limb of the messy, vulnerable transformation of aliveness. 

One of my favorite lessons I learned in 2024 was…when my breath moves into my chest and my throat constricts, it is a no. I can figure out why later.

A risk I took that I am proud of was…applying to TedX Bard because I breathed with the fear but didn’t let it stop me from putting myself out there.

The most breathgiving surprise of the year was…finding myself at a rugged Maine beach, watching ocean ducks bob on the cold, harsh Atlantic ocean waves.

Because, what I have discovered over the past three years is the ritual of conscious breathing daily nourishes an awareness and acceptance rooted in steadiness. The slow breaths help me shift out of the sympathetic state — the state I like to call, the “there must be a right answer to the question here” state.

Here’s the question.

When the breath stands still in your individual body, what is it asking you to listen to more closely?