April-Breathe

“BE the SMILE.

BE the dropping of your shoulders.

Unload, receive, and tune in to the rhythm of the cosmos where there is No-thing.

BE the SMILE.”

Mary Ino Burmeister

This quote is from Mary Burmeister, the woman who studied Jin Shin Jyutsu® in Japan and brought it to the United States. When I first read it in one of her self help books, I found it puzzling. How do you “BE the SMILE”? You can smile, you can see a smile, you can be smiling, but be a smile? It didn’t make sense. And even odder, how can you “be the dropping of your shoulders”? Isn’t that something you do? I didn’t understand. I even thought that perhaps Mary had been grammatically challenged.

But I persevered. I studied, I read, I meditated, I practiced, and a couple of years ago, I started to teach JSJ. Slowly, I became aware of the difference between doing and being – not just with respect to Jin Shin Jyutsu®, but also, life. It was a start. And with awareness, comes understanding, and ultimately, application (another lesson from Mary).

Which brings me to Donna’s and my goal for 2010: to work on BEING Jin Shin Jyutsu® – to experience effortless reality, to BE the SMILE. How? The answer is in the quote – “unload and receive”. Exhale and inhale. In other words, BREATHE.

It’s through the breath that we can connect with a natural way of being instead of doing. It’s the breath that connects us with our own natural energy resource. It’s the breath that connects us with our Source. It’s the breath that brings us into the present moment and runs through mind, body, and spirit, nourishing them and bringing harmony.

BREATHE.

Exhale. Be brave. Let go of our precious antiques, those attitudes and behaviors that don’t serve us, that we don’t need any more, that keep us from living life to the fullest – in Mary’s words, the “dirt, dust and greasy grime”.

Inhale. Believe. Receive the abundance that life has to offer, with no effort, no grasping, no pushing, no trying to control – FUN (Fulfillment, Understanding, No-thing).

So, we will be breathing this year, using our awareness and understanding and hoping to experience this world as “human beings” instead of the “human doings” we normally are.

For our charity this month, we’ve chosen Edna House, a residential rehabilitation program for women located in Cleveland. These women are engaged in letting go of their pasts and embracing their new lives, a perfect embodiment of exhale and inhale and we want to give them our support in their journey.

Susan and Donna

Susan Barack and Donna Tkachyk are Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioners.  To learn more, visit their member pages: SUSAN DONNA