#64Don't Forget To Breathe...
By Dan | posted on 16 October 2009 | 7 comments
In the quiet of the shadows, early morning in the city as the streets sleep, the world barely notices one's passing. Quick, light footfalls and the private whisper of measured breathing are the only sounds as I run, tasting the cold, crisp air and feeling the body's warmth rise up against the chill.
I love this. It's a time of immeasurable solitude; just you and the new day, and the frosted, naked city. There is an inner silence to match the outer, nothing but the movement, the breathing, the focus on each step. It's timeless. Endless. No matter what is going on in one's life, whatever challenges and trials exist to be met and overcome, there is always this discipline of the body to return to. An anchor. An old friend. A path with no conclusion, just there - waiting for you to step out and head a little further along it.
It's a path often shared, and such times are a real pleasure and bring their own reward. But in the end it's a personal journey and there is nothing quite like the vast aloneness of such quiet passing through the world, leaving no trace and wanting for none. You expand to fill that space, awareness stretches and merges with your world, the sights, sounds, smells and feel of it. Gradually you fade into it too. And what is left is the body, the breath, the blood, the movement.
Without fail the greatest pleasures in life are the simplest. They are primordial, pure, made of what is and what you brought with you into the world, no more than that. And it's enough. Always enough. These things just are. Just life, just seeing such mornings and being able to flow through them and on into the awakening day. There's a stillness and a calmness in it, a sense of ground. The world and daily life can rage, swirl and shout as much as it wants - this silence endures, lives. Waits. For us to find it again. And when we do it passes no judgement if we have neglected it for a while.
So on I run, moving free and unnoticed, and the world is mine alone for an endless moment. This path, with its distance, its time, its terrain, feeds out behind me and disappears as soon as I have passed. Until only I am left. And then I too am gone. Lungs draw air, a heart pumps blood, muscles pulse and movement happens.
And it's enough.
Labels: Psychology, Training
About the Author : Dan7 Comments:
this blog is good, because i sometime go for a jog in my town and the quietness of winter morning is grand... i think the peace and pureness of the air in incomparable to be honest, thanks for this!! james
By 
, at
8:29 pm, October 19, 2009
Great pros. This is a piece I think athletes of many disciplines could enjoy, and I know I'll pass it along to my friends from my time in distance running.
By Nick, at
10:47 pm, October 19, 2009
these are beautiful words ... it really shows how amazing and graceful our art is
I've been going through many tough times, and this is like enlightenment. I feel it every day, and it's the one thing I know I'll never be without. Thanks for reminding me of this treasure Dan, hope all is well, and hope RDV IV went as well as I hear!
PCE&LVE
By , at
8:08 pm, October 20, 2009
Hello
Its really well written with beautiful words.I really like it very much.Sometimes we should feel silence around us.Thank you very much for sharing this with us.
vitamine h
By 
Unknown, at
9:12 am, October 21, 2009
Beautiful words man , i remember that feeling i hope it came back soon :) , Cheers from Chile
By , at
3:26 am, October 31, 2009
this is the words of someone who enjoys life to its fullest, and its beuatyfull how it is put i do parkour in suffolk and i have never thought of mournings even if it is to just be alone even for a moment, u have opened up anouther way of thinking for me, thanx man
By , at
3:35 am, April 22, 2010
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