NICOLA CAROLI | BLOG

Each breath phase is a transition

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends &  clients and post as a gift.

In 2022 the breath tokens are about transitions. Transition literally means to “cross over, go over, pass over, hasten over, pass away,” from transire – trans “across, beyond” + ire “to go“.

In breathing, transition naturally occurs after the inhale and the exhale and vice versa. I’ve noticed that I tend to go over transitions, in breathing as well as in the every day, going from one thing to the next without paying attention to the space in between. Despite being aware that these transitions are happening, in breathing or in other behaviours, I find it really challenging to be present in them.

Together with you I’d like to explore the subject of transitions. I’ll post quotes, collect ideas or questions from people I know and from you.
If you’d like to share something about transitions, contact me at hallo@nicolacaroli.com. 

As I’m listening to a William Faulkner novel, as well as a biography at the moment, I’m thinking a lot about „time as a fluid condition“.

Transition is integration.

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends &  clients and post as a gift.

In 2022 the breath tokens are about transitions. Transition literally means to “cross over, go over, pass over, hasten over, pass away,” from transire – trans “across, beyond” + ire “to go“.

In breathing, transition naturally occurs after the inhale and the exhale and vice versa. I’ve noticed that I tend to go over transitions, in breathing as well as in the every day, going from one thing to the next without paying attention to the space in between. Despite being aware that these transitions are happening, in breathing or in other behaviours, I find it really challenging to be present in them.

Together with you I’d like to explore the subject of transitions. I’ll post quotes, collect ideas or questions from people I know and from you.
If you’d like to share something about transitions, contact me at hallo@nicolacaroli.com. 

My friend Sivan contributed the following: “Transition is integration. To integrate what is past and what is to come. You can’t go forward if you haven’t worked out what happened in the past. It creates confusion. It’s like you want to be on the other side of something without going over the bridge.”

After her phenomenal memoir of surviving Auschwitz, psychologist Dr Edith Eger wrote a book about her work as a psychiatrist The Gift, 12 Lessons to Save Your Life.

Based on the Hungarian saying „if you sit with one butt on two chairs, you become half-assed“, a metaphor for leading two lives and keeping a secret, Dr Eger developed an exercise, taking the saying literally. 

„Healing can‘t happen as long as we‘re hiding or disowning parts of ourselves.“, she says. By physically experiencing what it feels like to sit on two chairs at the same time, we can get a sense of the cost of having to „bridge the gap between our ideal self and our real self“. And then, in comparison, what it is like to sit in one chair, in „our own fulfillment“. In the exercise, Dr. Eger also guides us to experience the breath in the two positions.

“If you sit with one butt on two chairs, you become half-assed“.
Place two chairs side by side. Begin by sitting on one chair, legs uncrossed. Feel the way your feet rest against the floor. Feel your sit bones heavy on the chair. Feel your spine lengthen out of your pelvis, your head extend from your neck. Soften your shoulders away from your ears. Take a few deep, nourishing breaths, lengthening with the inhale, grounding with the exhale. Now move so you are sitting with one butt cheek on one chair, the other cheek on the other chair. Check in with your feet, your sit bones, your spine, neck, head, and shoulders. How do your body and breath feel when you straddle two chairs? Finally, return to one chair. Ground your feet and sit bones. Lengthen your spine and neck. You‘re back home. Follow your breath as you realign and become congruent.“

I like the phrasing “Life is in the breath” which is the title of a podcast by Dr Ron Ehrlich, talking with breath therapist Dr Rosalba Courtney.

Apart from excellent information about breathing, what I really appreciated in the talk was rediscovering poetry from a breath expert.

Poetry has been my passion all my life, as a reader, writer and as a cultural facilitator. When the subject came up about breathing rate, Dr Courtney put it beautifully in perspective, that optimal breathing isn’t just about breathing at a particular breathing rate but about what you’re doing in your life and how you choose to relate to the world. Life, literally, is in the breath.

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends &  clients and post as a gift.

In 2022 the breath tokens are about transitions. Transition literally means to “cross over, go over, pass over, hasten over, pass away,” from transire – trans “across, beyond” + ire “to go“.

In breathing, transition naturally occurs after the inhale and the exhale and vice versa. I’ve noticed that I tend to go over transitions, in breathing as well as in the every day, going from one thing to the next without paying attention to the space in between. Despite being aware that these transitions are happening, in breathing or in other behaviours, I find it really challenging to be present in them.

Together with you I’d like to explore the subject of transitions. I’ll post quotes, collect ideas or questions from people I know and from you.
If you’d like to share something about transitions, contact me at hallo@nicolacaroli.com. 

Transition is a journey. What would happen if I would go on this journey instead of going over it? And how can find presence during the transitions in every day moments?