Just breathe

I've read that the simpler your life is, the more peace and happiness you find.

Also, I've been having this thing lately where I feel like I can't take a full breath. Kinda freaks me out. Hmmm...wonder if these two things are related.

My aunt left yesterday for three months in India. She and my uncle go every winter and meditate for 30 days. On Christmas day she will be meditating. When I was younger I thought my aunt was effing crazy. Weird. Bizarre. Who. Does. That? But having completed my own 10 day meditation courses, I'm wondering if she has the right idea.

When you're at a meditation course, you basically step off the planet for a bit. Being still and quiet is your only obligation. The day before she left, my aunt emailed me and said she was "ready to go...life is complex here."

Do you ever wonder what people did before modern civilizations? Forget cell phones and computers and lightning fast communication. Think small villages or farming communities. What did they do? They talked, and sang songs, made things with their own hands, and sat on their porches looking at the view in front of them and thought. Simple. Peaceful.

I sometimes feel like we humans have progressed and evolved so much, we've left ourselves behind. I wonder if we are really equipped to live in a system like we've created. It's fast. It's obligatory. It's constant over-stimulation. When do we breathe?

Notice that in my top 10-can't-live-withouts I have my phone, my computer, the Internet, my blow dryer! Those things aren't going away anytime soon. I love my technology, she says as she blogs away. But really, this breathing thing is bothering me...

Well, anyhoo, as I was sleeping walking my way through feeding the dogs this morning at 5 am, this commercial broke through the fog. I laughed out loud. A lot. And I appreciated it so much, I thought I would share. In the crazy, fast, over-stimulated, holiday decorated day that it is, take a second to laugh...and breathe. I know I enjoyed it.