The Universe began with a "Big Breath"

The Universe began in one long exhalation, not with a Big Bang.

As I prepare for the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program that I will be facilitating this week, I’ve been immersing myself in MBSR practices such as the Breath-and-Body Mindfulness practise. This practise is focusing one’s attention on the breath and the physical sensations of breathing. I’ve discovered that connecting to the breath has often made it easier for me to settle into meditation.

In the Cosmic Hologram (Currivan J., 2018), recent scientific evidence show that the Universe started in one long exhalation, and not a Big Bang as first posited in a theory of the expanding Universe by the Belgian Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître. This new evidence that the Universe began with one deep and long breath makes more sense to me deeply and intuitively with meditation and the Cosmic connection. Each breath that we take, each inhalation and each exhalation, we are breathing with the Cosmos.

The intent of the Breath-and-Body practise is to focus on the breath to open into an open awareness of Being. Opening awareness to yourself and your body breathing. It’s not about trying to control or manage the breath in deep breathing exercises. The practice involves physically sensing the body, of letting the breath breathe you. The breath serves as an anchor if you are feeling disconnected with yourself when lost in thought or swept over by emotions, a focus that you can bring your attention to what you have been doing naturally all your life, and an indicator of how you are in the present moment such as sensing short shallow breaths or deep breaths at ease or agitated breathing in anxious moments.

In our connecting the breath to the physical sensations to the body in the Mindfulness practise, we are immersing in the Cosmos, breathing into Nature and my/your body as part of nature. Exercises such as Yoga, Taichi and Qigong help also in coordinating movement and breathing.

So the next time you think of breathing, just exhale and breathe….