Breathing Room

Some years ago I went to a great physiotherapy course entitled, "If you can't breathe, you can't function."  It was a great course, and since then I always look first at the breathing of the little kids that I treat.  Often their respiration is irregular and shallow.  I place my hands on their lower ribs and diaphragm to facilitate steady and deep breathing patterns.  Often their compromised respiration severely limits their ability to move.  The decreased oxygen intake leaves very little energy for living life fully.   I need to focus on ways to facilitate  adequate respiration before expecting movement in other areas.

We all need room to breathe deeply and fully in life.  I read today in  Psalm 61 (The Message paraphrase) that God gives us breathing room and a place to get away from it all.  So often in our fast paced life of to do lists and pressure, we leave ourselves very little room to breathe.  Even in the church, we make constant and unreasonable demands of performance on ourselves and others.  There is very little breathing room.  In turn, us parents often fill not only our own schedules, but those of our kids way too full.  All good things, but altogether too much.

Take time today to give yourself room to breathe.   I love to take our dog, Daisy, for a  walk each day.  Often days go by without giving myself and Daisy this gift of breathing room.  I know then that I need to consciously make some room in my life to breathe.  I have just joined a book club and although I am not sure I can make it to my first meeting, I sure am delighting in taking the time to read novels just for fun.  Each of us are different in our needs for breathing room and the things that give us that unrestricted enjoyment and refilling.  Teaching our kids life skills  involves modelling healthy self care and ways to allow ourselves space to breathe.  I am wanting to improve in the whole area of helping them find ways to refill and to deepen their capacity to breathe.

Remember, if you can't breathe, you can't function.  Help yourself and your kids take those deep restoring breaths today!