Just Breathe…

Just Breathe… prAna, life, asthma and clothing style

Breathing… something we generally take for granted or don’t even think about.

I had the hardest run of my life today. No, it wasn’t fast. No, I was not running hills. No, I was not racing. I was just fighting to be able to breathe. Literally. I was not able to take a breath, my lungs shut down and I was struggling a lot. To say I was scared is not a fair statement. I was terrified.

Even though I have been into Bikram Yoga and Kundalini Yoga during most of my life, and even though I know the importance of inhaling and exhaling in your day to day life, I have to confess I have taken for granted what a precious gift it is to be able to breathe.

When my daughter was born I would make special emphasis into teaching her how to inhale and exhale whenever something was upsetting her. She got it quite right. I remember one time when we were outside of Rainforest Cafe and there was a giant fake snake hanging from a tree she started to panic. Immediately, all by herself (she was two at the time), she closed her eyes and started to inhale and exhale until she calmed down. I was so proud of her! (and giving myself a pat in the back for being such a cool, progressive mom… you know, the ego hits from time to time J )

Fast forward to my present moment. I am a long distance runner with huge goals in mind. Last year I had a little setback with some injuries but nothing that can take me down. While I couldn’t run I went back to my first love: swimming. Yes, I couldn’t put weight on my right leg but I could still swim. And I could still practice Yoga. I went to my beloved Bikram Yoga North Scottsdale Studio and that helped a lot to heal from the inside out. Finally after almost a year of not running/racing I was able to start training again this past November. Everything is going well (notice I say IS despite the hard week I am having). I have the support of my fantastic team (Sonoran Distance Project), the best doctors at Arizona Pain Specialists, and the best way to get y nutrition down to Perfect Bars.

I am not the kind of gal that likes to complain or to see the glass half empty. I wake up every morning thanking life for being so good and kind to me. Seriously, every morning I am just happy that I get to live one more day. It doesn’t matter how the day will be (we pretty much create them) I get a chance to live when there are many people that don’t. Then I start with this new ritual I have: I repeat over and over again “something amazingly awesome is happening to me today”.

Well, about two weeks ago my amazingly awesome thing was that a wonderful clothing company called prAna sent me some clothes. I LOVE prAna from long time ago. This is a company that has the same values I do. They want to give more than they want to take. They want to inspire, integrate and socialize a more caring and proactive approach to the world around us. No, they weren’t offering me a sponsorship or expecting me to blog about them, they just knew I love Perfect Bars, the companies know each other and they gifted me with some amazing clothes (they have casual clothes, running tanks, yoga clothes… it’s just perfect for someone active like me!).

I know. You may be thinking, What does clothes have to do with your hardest run? Well, prAna means  “breath” and I have been thinking how life works in certain ways. I get a gift from a fantastic company (seriously, the fabrics they use are amazing) called “breath” (prAna) and I am struggling for air.

I have always had allergies. Got into two anaphylactic shocks in the past but I thought I was over them. I also have asthma but it had never been a big problem. This year the pollen index has been particularly high and it hit me bad.  Today my lungs shut down while I was running and I was struggling to breathe. Ironic that someone who is wearing prAna (“breath”) clothes is gasping for air, Isn’t it? Well, after several puffs to my inhaler and being on the nebulizer when I got home, I started wondering What for? Why now?. I don’t ask Why me? Because it’s clear to me things don’t happen to you, they happen FOR you…

so I was sitting in the couch (let’s say after an acute asthma attack you can’t do much, not even talk!) and decided to catch up with my emails. I also remembered I hadn’t sent a proper thank you to my new friends at prAna and decided to go to their website to look for the right email addresses (and look for some other clothes 🙂 ). I ran into a page that says “About Us” and it hit me why me and why now: I have been looking for a long time for an answer to “Am I making a difference in this world?”, “How can I help other people when I am just a simple person?”, “Do I need to do huge things and achieve all my goals so other people listen to what I want to tell them and to inspire them?”, “Do I need to stop thinking about my goals –let’s face it, athletic goals are selfish- and focus on only helping other people?”… while I was driving I was asking the Universe for guidance about how to inspire other people to go beyond what they think are their limits. And then I read “prAna  is Sanskrit for breath, life and vitality of the Spirit… we started simply, rooted in idealism and a timeless belief that companies like ours should give much more than they take from the world… this is who we are, we believe that any form of moving meditation can help you breathe deeply through a tough day or laugh in the face of a traffic jam… as a company, prAna avoids process that can cause harm to people or the environment… we want to keep doing well while doing good”… See I got my answer right there! And that’s why it was meant to be for me to receive a fantastic gift from a clothing company: not the clothes (which I am happy I got!) but the answer to the life challenges I am going through in their “About Us” page. Life works in strange ways. You will get the message you need where you least expect it if you are willing to be open and listen to what the universe has to tell you. So, yes, it’s okay to be an idealist and have a timeless belief that I can give back much more than what I am taking from the world. It’s ok to have a timeless belief that I can achieve my huge goals as well (and so can you). So no, I don’t need to give up my running goals (running makes me so happy) in order to help or inspire other people be the best version of themselves, I just have to do what makes me happy because it makes me happy and in that way I am creating and bringing positive energy everywhere I go; no, I don’t need to achieve my goals, I  just have to do my 100% effort while trying to get them (results don’t depend on us, effort does) and, more important, I just need to remember to never take anything for granted, especially not breathing… I just need to remember to breathe.

And you, Are you aware that you are breathing right now?

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