"Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace."
Thich Nhat Hanh
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Tom Barrett's Meditation of the Week is on breathing -
"Awareness of the breath is basic to meditation as breathing is basic to life. Humans naturally manifest our emotional states in our breathing. Fast hard breathing arises with powerful emotions—anger and fear, for instance. Slower, deeper breathing comes with more relaxed states. We can pump up our emotions by pumping up our respiration, and we can calm our emotions by deepening and slowing our breath. When we need to calm down, the place to start is to become conscious of the breath and intentionally slow it down and make it deeper."
Nice deep breath.....
