Breathing with Gratitude, also known as “BEING,” is the only thing anyone ever has to do.
When presented with the notion, many people challenge the idea of BEING with valid skepticism. Some responses I’ve gotten when discussing BEING have included:
“How will anything get done if I’m not doing it?”
“Yeah, you say all this hippy crap because you don’t have children.”
“You must be privileged enough to AFFORD to be able to just breathe and say “thank you.” I have bills.”
“People won’t just let you be. Folks always got something to say and are in the way of me being.”
“[The government/illuminati/metaverse/deep web/my mamma/etc.] have destroyed our lives and now, we can’t BE because we are subject to the powers that BE!”
When the Nightmares Come True
As the familiar infrastructure of society disintegrates, adjusting to daily life can induce infuriating exhaustion and crippling fear. Many people are experiencing nightmares that weren’t supposed to come true. When powering through your own personal nightmare, anyone who even suggests a simple solution, like “breathing with gratitude,” is swiftly added to the list of antagonists whose names will no longer be spoken in your presence!
Nevertheless, I am asking you to consider that maybe, being is all there is to life. I recently spoke to a woman who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She told me that she doesn’t talk about it much because people get weird. They either turn into sympathy robots or they try to change the subject to make themselves feel more comfortable. This woman wasn’t interested in ignoring her condition to make others comfortable. She also wasn’t trying to get anybody’s sympathy. She just wanted to feel normal.
So I asked her, “On the other side of your diagnosis, where do you find joy in your days?” She responded, “I love the water. I like to swim, snorkel, body surf, and on days when that would be too much, I just sit by the water and read.” Having discovered snorkeling as a hobby myself, I went on to ask her of the most beautiful bodies of water she’s encountered so far. We spent at least an hour discussing turtles, dolphins, different fish, coral, various bodies of water, the difference between swimming in the river and the ocean, and our most memorable skinny dipping experiences. We even set a snorkeling date, met up, and had a smashing good time breathing under water.
My new friend, despite her condition, prioritizes being in the way that she most enjoys being. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be with her when I can. By being together, we both get an opportunity to experience each other's joy.
It is tempting to see someone with a terminal illness as a form of “other.” But let’s face it: life is terminal, no matter who you are. With this awareness, BEING isn't just a solution or distraction from problems. BEING is an absolute priority. All other things can join in. Because there's plenty oxygen out here and it's way more fun when the homies get some.
I’m sure that by now, you’ve been in a situation that has tried your capacity for resilience. Think about a time when you successfully overcame something you thought would break you. At some point, you probably surrendered, removed yourself, stopped caring, let go of attachments to outcomes, took a deep breath, cried, looked up at the sun, heard the birds singing their songs, and took a walk around the block to clear your head. You saw Mosiah, the dude with the oranges, selling his oranges on the corner for a "quarter 'a piece." Gertrude was still in front of the 7Eleven, complaining about her 29 year old son who refuses to get a regular job because he doesn’t want to become a slave to the oppressive system like the rest of the sheeple. Life went on. The problem that plagued your consciousness slowly went out of focus and new preoccupations emerged.
When the important becomes a problem, it’s ok to return to being. Neither another person nor another thing in the universe really cares about your unique attachments, nor should they. The infinite intelligence of your highest consciousness doesn’t even care about your attachments. It exists in the joy of complete surrender to that which is. If all these entities outside and inside of you ain’t trippin, then you certainly deserve a trip-free moment. And one moment of trip-freedom might just lead to two.
Inherent in every identified problem is the solution, so if I were going to respond to the skepticism I mentioned earlier, the responses might sound something like:
“How will anything get done if I’m not doing it?”
-Stop doing it and find out.
“Yeah, you say all this hippy crap because you don’t have children.”
-You’re at an advantage by having children. BEING with children is a great way to learn how to BE.
“You must be privileged enough to AFFORD to be able to just breathe and say “thank you.” I have bills.”
-I AM privileged. Privileged with the awareness of BEING. And now, so are you!
“People won’t just let me be. Folks always got something to say and are in the way of me being.”
-No one can allow you to BE. You BE. If someone tries to stop you from BEING, then your only job is to do whatever it takes to get as far away from them as possible within 10 minutes…because that’s the maximum time a person can survive without breathing…and gratitude.
“[The government/illuminati/metaverse/deep web/my mamma/etc.] have destroyed our lives and now, we can’t BE because we are subject to the powers that BE!”
-Whatever, man.
BEING is a process. Distractions are everywhere. None of us are above being distracted by the noise, news, and excitement of life. However, we are all capable of the awareness of BEING. The more we practice the awareness of BEING, the easier it becomes to return to BEING when there’s nothing more that can be done.
© Dr. Cho Dyubeh, 2022. BEist, Human Behavioralist