Junk heap.

Here is a beautiful way of describing the utility of being aware of how we are breathing--adapted from the book Living in the Presence by Tilden Edwards. (This also gives me a reason to mention @breathe.serene, where the artist somehow captures both awareness of the breath and the ease that awareness offers in every single image!)

“Attention to our breathing provides the simplest physical means of releasing a crowded, tense surface of mind and body. The most fundamental point is to slow down the breath. The more shallow and high in the chest we breathe, the more rapidly we breathe. Such rapid shallow breathing usually both reflects and reinforces tension in us. This in turn has a way of stimulating rapid, shallow thoughts that match the breathing. Our minds are racing. One thought feeds another in a driven, panicky way. We are tied up in producing an ever-taller mental junk heap that takes the place of our sense of who we really are and our connection with the world.”

Photo by Foad Roshan on Unsplash