5.1.1. Learning to Breathe

The global pandemic, and renewed attention to police brutality have heightened our attention to our breath. "I can't breathe" are often the last words of people held under the knees of police brutality. "I can't breathe" is also all too often a symptom of the oxygen depletion caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus and its many mutations.

Learning to breathe deeply, learning to recognize when our breath has become shallow—perhaps due to anger, or fear, or outrage—is a very first step. We know, deep in our core, that we can live for days without food, for perhaps a day without water, but not even ten minutes without breath. Breath is the gift of oxygen synthesized by the plant and algae life all around us, the gift scientists have labelled "photosynthesis." Doing something as simple as paying attention one's breath is a first place to begin to embody forms of knowing that are open to our interdependence with all of creation, and Menakem offers multiple ways to practice such attention in the midst of our pain. He shares ways to refuse to numb our emotions but rather to learn with and from them (2018).
