I can’t breathe … just breathe

Breath is a common denominator of the major crises we are facing globally – the COVID pandemic, racial injustice, and climate change.

People who have contracted COVID often report great difficulty breathing, with some needing to be put on a ventilator and many claiming they feel like their lungs are on fire. George Floyd said ‘I can’t breathe’ 16 times before he died under the knee of white police officer. The people in the streets protesting racial inequity and injustice have trouble breathing when they are tear-gassed by police. 

The Amazon Rainforest, the world’s largest, is often referred to as “the lungs of the planet’ as it produces 20% of the oxygen in our earth’s atmosphere.The Amazon is continually on fire, a situation that is exacerbated by climate change as well as contributing to it. The wildfires in the U.S. and bushfires in Australia have been getting worse every year and now the tundra in Siberia is burning. In addition to the far reaching environmental impacts, this is creating individual and collective health challenges.

Messages from our lungs

Because my lungs are the primary site of my cancer diagnosis, I have explored the emotions attributed to our lungs. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, they are sadness and grief. I have worked on unresolved grief in my own life and my family as part of my healing process. Now we are collectively being called upon to witness and address the grief of people losing loved ones to COVID, the intergenerational trauma grief of indigenous and people of color and climate change grief, especially for young people concerned about their future. And I imagine Mother Earth is grieving her losses as well.

Healthy energy in our lungs is associated with clear thinking, openness to new ideas and good communication, all essential to moving through these crises. Creating healthy lung energy can come from intentional breathing. I used to get annoyed when anyone would suggest ‘just breathe’ when I was really upset, as if that was going to solve the reason for my upset. I now realize that the point of focusing on one’s breath is to calm the nervous system from hyper-arousal and bring you back to the present so that you can think more clearly and possibly find a solution to your issue.

Breath connects us to one another and the natural world. It is how we take in what we need and release what we don’t. Paying attention to our breath can connect us back to ourselves.