Perception vs. Reality

People obviously have very different experiences in life. Depending on the country, family, religion, economic status, and all the other variables that we are presented with, life from the outside can have an infinite number of different possibilities for how we spend our time. Often it is thought that those born into wealth or those that are born beautiful or talented have it easier than those in different circumstances, and that they may have a better life, but I love this story to demonstrate the reality.

I read years ago about a journalist who was travelling the world to see and discuss the devastation in many countries. There was a profound moment that changed her life. She was driving along a dirt road, noting all of the garbage along the sides, and came upon this little girl. She got out of the vehicle and approached the girl who was rummaging through the garbage to find food. When they met, the little girl smiled with the most love and joy exuding from her eyes. Even though living in poverty, all she emitted was happiness. She could see her heart was filled with love, not fear.

I think about this frequently when I get in my head and feel stressed about life. We are so conditioned to believe that what matters is what we have, how we look, what people think about us . . . that we become obsessed with things that take us away from our real purpose, and that derail joy and happiness. We compare ourselves to others and judge appearances, rather than heart. That little girl exuding joy had nothing material, but yet was so full of love.

Our experience of life is based on how we see it. For some it is heaven on earth, for others it is hell. And this has nothing to do with what people have or how they look. Many of the wealthiest people in the world, or those that are famous and receive admiration from afar live the most lonely lives. Their external presence supersedes what is most important and they miss the connection to their soul by seeking gain and attention outside themselves. Not that it is a bad thing to have abundance, beauty, and opportunities, but without the connection to your true self, you are like an airbrushed picture, deleting all the parts that connect you to, most importantly, your heart energy.

This ties in to how you breathe. We have conditioned ourselves to breathe through the muscles of the upper chest. This connects you to a frequency in your brain that is fear based, connecting you to thoughts of future and past – False Energy Acting Real. Getting back to the diaphragmatic breath connects you to a relaxed frequency in your brain that connects you to the moment, and God - or whatever version of this that you resonate with - lives in the moment.

This moment is all you have so to be present creates a very different experience of life than being stuck in your mind. If you are living in fear, you are living a life of perception that isn’t based in reality and your life will be determined by old patterns, negative thinking and despair. Only when you awaken to your higher self and connect to your breath can you support your heart, create space in your body and feel and exude the love you came here to experience and share.

The diaphragmatic breath also changes the overall temperature of your body. It is your furnace, compared to breathing through the muscles of the upper chest which is like a space heater. This creates a profound difference in not only your physiology, but also how your body heals. If you are cold, your body is more like a container with parts. It also is more fragile. Ice can break and shatter, like what can happen to an elderly person who falls. Sometimes in this scenario, the hip breaks which causes the fall. As you age without the diaphragmatic breath, you become more fragile. Conversely, if you are keeping your furnace turned on lifelong, then your overall temperature stays warm. This is a body that has space and flow and is more fluid. This body, if injured, bounces back much more easily. The space maintained can absorb the force entering the system, so as not to break and shatter, and if it does break, has a completely different opportunity to heal.

We have been conditioned to believe that aging is inevitable and with it will likely come complications with body and mind. We look at our family to see what they have experienced and if heart disease or cancer run through the genetic line, fear that this is a possibility for us to experience. It is the breath that dictates the direction of aging and you have far more control over how you move through time than you may think. And, no matter what age it is that you turn on your furnace, your body will respond, become warmer and positive change will take place.

At some point in time, we will all leave this place. It’s the quality of time that we have here that either makes life feel like heaven on earth, or not. The reality is that you have control. By connecting to your heart through your breath, you change the game of time, and your reality becomes different as you see through the lens of love, not fear.

Learn more in this week's episode of The Fascia Masters below.