Breathe

Breathe: 15 September 2023

I worked from home today for the first time in a long time. Because as of Monday I’m working again!

I just began a fabulous new job at Furman University. Woo hoo! This has been a really good and rather intense first week of onboarding. (Onboarding? I guess it’s better than orienting, which is vastly better than the non-word orientating.) There’s the formal onboarding—who’s who, who does what, here are all the forms. And there’s the informal onboarding—what is the culture, what are the norms, how does it really work?

So far it all works really well.  It’s been a joy to feel part of a team again, a team working together toward something larger than any one individual. Plus, how great to be on a college campus!

In Shunryu Suzuki’s seminal book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, he writes, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” This is not to discredit one’s expertise; it is to seek to encounter any situation with an attitude of openness and learning. I’m approaching my new job with beginner’s mind. It is exhilarating and humbling and, at the moment, exhausting.

My first full time job was working with SC Christian Action Council, the statewide ecumenical organization. At the time we worked with 17 denominations to foster peace, racial and cultural reconciliation, civility, and Christian unity. I remember being surprised by having a slight headache every night that first week. There was so much to learn! Even just the terminology was challenging. Like the fact that one partner was the SC District of the Wesleyan Church which was comprised of conferences and led by a District Superintendent; and that another partner was the SC Conference of the United Methodist Church which was comprised of districts and led by a Bishop. It was a lot. It was thrilling. I stayed 13 years.

This week I’ve come home every night mentally exhausted but also happy. Happy! Who knew? It’s been too long since I’ve been happy in my work. I’ve always had colleagues I’ve loved, and the mission has always been meaningful; but I haven’t always felt like it was possible for me to succeed. This week has been a lot, it’s been thrilling, and I hope to stay many years.

Whenever I’ve felt a bit overwhelmed this week I’ve tried to remember to breathe. One of the best books I’ve read this year is Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. A brief description from GoodReads is, “Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.” The bottom line is: breathe through your nose.

That sounds easy, but it’s not something I’ve ever been able to do with ease. Even when I’ve focused on breath in meditation or yoga, I haven’t necessarily been able to breathe through my nose. I certainly don’t at night. (Sorry about that, Mark.)

I can’t verify any of the scientific claims in the book, and you can explore other resources to do so, but I can tell you that I’ve been able to breathe through my nose 1,000 times better in the month since I finished this book. And, just the focus on breathing through my nose has helped calm me in stressful situations. Or, like this week, in new situations.

Concentrating on breathing seems like the ultimate beginner’s mind, so I’ve been pairing the two in this intentional start to my new job. Slow and steady.

In my blog preview I asked readers what you’ve been thinking about lately. One friend has been thinking and talking about the nature of evil—whether or not it’s objectively real, and if so, does it respond to human action (or inaction). That’s pretty heady! I love that you’re digging into this! I confess that I haven’t had enough brain space to dive to that depth recently. Maybe one day I will.

In the meantime, I know that we are each in our own ways threading the needle of competing demands and desires. If you can, join me in a slow breath. Be present, find something to be grateful for, smile if you can, be open to many possibilities.