Breathing Harmony
How To Seek Harmony During Covid-19
“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it - like leaves from a tree... Just as the ocean ‘waves’, the universe ‘peoples’.... You are not a stranger here...” – Alan Watts
We’ve missed you. We mean it, but we bet you’ve been saying that to a lot of people recently too.
We started this company as a way to try and give back – to the people we care about, to the places we love, to the causes that mean the most to us, to connect.
As a New York based company, we’re watching the people and places we love the most, and everyone that supported us, be some of the hardest hit by Covid-19. When Philippe and Julian (our co-founders) went to the beaches of Montauk the other week and it truly felt like they were standing at the End of The World. The City That Never Sleeps has been tucked in, each night, by some unforeseen hand. You can’t see the smiles of the few people you do pass anymore, because their faces are covered by masks.
Julian Lesser, Montauk May 2020
It can leave even the most optimistic feeling lonely, cut-off, on edge, and maybe even hopeless. And it’s ok to say that the Facetimes, the Zooms, the Snaps, and the cards in the mail you might even be fortunate enough to get just aren’t enough.
When the streets are ghostly, when people are touchy, when most of your interactions are relegated behind bars of zeroes and ones, how do we feel connected when everything has changed?
There are absolutely no easy answers. Our days, our years, and our lives always go in cycles of ups and downs, one seemingly opposite thing giving way to another, but each thing unable to exist, or be seen clearly, without the other. You were probably able to love your next partner better because you knew what heartbreak was. You tend to enjoy your successes more if you know what it’s like to couch surf and eat ramen. The dinner tastes even better if you were thinking about it the entire way home because you were so hungry. But none of that makes being broke, heartbreak, or hunger feel any better while you’re in either of them.
A lot of ancient wisdom says we often feel disconnected because we over identify with what’s going on in our heads and our hearts in that moment. That the secret to feeling connected, no matter what, is to decide that you are not your thoughts, nor are you your feelings in any given moment. When we get too attached to either, that’s when we put up a wall between us, and everything we see, pretending we’re not a part of this all too. But in times like these, when what’s going on within us is almost overwhelming, how do we let any of it go, if only for a moment?
Here’s what we suggest:
Sit somewhere comfortable, but where you can sit upright. Take a deep breath, relax into your seat, and close your eyes.
Breathe through your nose as you normally do, and just try to feel your breath moving. Maybe you feel it most going in and out of your nose. Maybe you feel your stomach, or your chest, rise and fall most noticeably. Wherever you feel it, stay there, and notice how your breath waves in and out with that feeling – the inhale giving way to that sensation, your exhale giving way to the release of a different one. Now see if you can sort of “fall in” to that cycle, doing your best to let it be all that’s going on right now.
You may have various thoughts. Oh, I forgot to close my laptop. Should I get GrubHub tonight? Ugh. My dad’s probably gonna call now... When these come up, just give them a little label – “thinking” – realize you were thinking elsewhere, and come right back to your breath, and the above feeling. You will probably need to do this a million times. And it’s fine. No judging, no annoyance, no anger, no ‘can’t’ here. If you breathe, and come back, be gentle with yourself. You’re doing exactly the right things.
Next, you might want to notice how your clothes feel on your skin, maybe reach out and touch the seat you’re on – a chair, the floor, the bed – how does that feel (smooth? cold? a certain pattern? shaggy? soothing?). Keep breathing with the rise and fall, the in and out.
When you’re ready (A good start is 5 minutes, but seriously, do this for as long as you like), finish a few more cycles of breath, and slowly – without popping your eyes immediately open – gently open your eyes. With your eyes open, briefly return to the previous sensation you incorporated: clothes on your skin, or something you touched. Does it feel any different than it did before? Do you notice anything else?
The more you do this, the more you will notice that there are little spaces in between all the times you’re “thinking”. And the more you do this, the more the spaces will get bigger and bigger. And in those spaces, you get to choose.
These times are some of the most trying we’ve ever encountered. And whatever you’re feeling, it’s ok. But make sure to give yourself little moments where you don’t feel it, where you’re connected – to yourself, to who you really are, to who we all really are. Breathe. Reach out. Make a practice out of not creating any more distance than what you already may be facing. You are absolutely worth 5-10 minutes of this.
We at Seek North all try to practice just as the above. And we have quite a few pairs of open arms if you want to start too. Comment, like, email, message, and tell us how it went. We welcome you to our family. We will get through this the way humans always do: connected, together. You are not alone.