In my teaching process I focus on ways to enable people to find out for themselves what helps them with their breathing. Trying to put that into writing the other day, I formulated „find out what works for you, what‘s helpful for you and what inspires you.“ And I thought, hang on a minute, why only „inspires“? It could equally be „expires“.
„Expire“ etymologically means “to breathe out”, from ex– „out“ and spirare „to breathe.
To „expire“ used to be synonymous with dying, the last breath marking the end of life. In a way, each exhale or expiration, marking the end of one breath cycle, metaphorically stands for the end of a whole life cycle.
In western culture “expiration” has a negative connotation, as does anything to do with death and dying. When something expires it‘s outlasted its use. Food beyond its expiry date becomes potentially harmful as opposed to nourishing. And colloquially, older women, for example, are classified as being beyond their expiry date. Dying, in its essence, is seen as a failure, as proof that scientific mankind has not completely mastered nature yet.
There are no such hierarchical associations in breathing, inhaling and exhaling are interdependent. So, just as I‘d say, let‘s find out what inspires us, I’d equally say, let‘s find out what expires us, or, in other words, what makes us experience wholeness, completion and rest.