Finding Your Centerpoint

Conscious breath serves as a vital bridge to connecting with one’s soul and accessing heart-centered wisdom. By learning to pause and breathe through life’s stressors, you can move beyond the mind’s judgments to achieve true inner alignment and peace.

Lessons Learned in the Hawaiian Islands

In 2005, I embarked on a life-changing move to Hawaii. Having lived in the Sedona area most of my life, I felt a soul-calling to explore the Hawaiian Islands. At the turn of the century, I had already explored many countries in the East, including Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. This time I wanted to stay closer to “home,” and since I lived in the desert’s dry, intense heat, I wanted to travel to the ocean and experience the lush jungles of Hawaii.

My wish was granted when, in 2005, I had the opportunity to spend extensive time on the islands of Kauai and Maui. And even though this season of my life was short-lived, I learned some valuable lessons about how to “find my center” and deepen my connection to spirit, to myself, and to others.

While on the island of Kauai, I encountered a beautiful soul named Auntie Nahi. Antie Nahi invited me to her home, where we would spend the next 3 months exploring concepts such as breath, Hohoponopono, and soul alignment. You see, Auntie Nahi was from a lineage of Hawaiian Kahunas. “Kahuna” is a Hawaiian word meaning “keeper of hidden knowledge.” Aunti Nahi was a known medicine woman, and I was honored to receive some of her insights.

The biggest and most important insight I learned was the power of our breath and its role in creating a lifeline to Spirit.

Integrating Breath and Heart Wisdom

Ultimately, using the breath to guide you is key. The Hawaiian word “Aloha” means “the presence of breath” or “the breath of life.” “Ha” means breath. When Aunti Nahi would approach me, she would immediately look at my chest to see if I was breathing.  She would greet me with “Aloha,” and in doing so, she was calling my awareness to go inward and reflect on my state of being and interaction in the world.

When we are in a positive state of being, we are sending and receiving positive energy. It is similar to the term “Namaste”. Saying “aloha” to someone recognizes that the two of us share the dance of breath. To share the dance of breath is to share souls and thus to connect to the God-self, or Spirit in all things.

Aunti Nahi told me that the Soul is absent without breath. Without breath, the spirit leaves within a few minutes. The breath knows the soul, and the soul knows the Divine. The dance of God is the flow of breath. Consequently, when something is not in the flow, it will live in a contracted state. Everyone is connected to Spirit, but not everyone chooses to participate in the dance. “Contracted” states are states of holding back, pulling away, or closing down. Thus, according to Hawaiian custom, we must be aware of our breath to be fully alive and in the flow. Indeed, we are all familiar with the process that happens as we near our deathbed. As the breath closes down, our soul prepares to leave. Therefore, breath is life.

Breath is the Vital Life Force

Conscious breathing is specifically responsible for the vitality of our lives. Of course our parasympathetic nervous system ensures that we are all on “auto-pilot” so we continue to breathe whether we are thinking about it or not.  But Auntie Nahi emphasized the purposeful and conscious effort required to intentionally engage with our breath.  Accordingly, she taught me that conscious breath creates a vibration at a frequency that results in movement, flow, and joy.

As we use the word “vital”, we think about what is essential. The breath is critical to maintain vitality on both a physical and spiritual level. Without it, there is no life. Breath is the life-giver. According to Nahi, a great indicator of our connection with the soul is based on how we breathe. Our spiritual self is deeply, mindfully, and consciously engaged with our breath. The engagement with our soul-self will undoubtedly be shallow if we stay contracted, hold our breath, or be so full of anxiety that we forget to breathe altogether.

Conscious Breath Engagement for Conscious Living

I found this fascinating! Could Aunti Nahi be correct in asserting that if I wanted to know myself better and find my deepest connection to my higher self, I would first need to focus on how I interact with my breath? What a unique and inspiring concept.

I began to realize that during my morning practice of intentional breathing, I became more conscious and present in my life. The slow, deep engagement with breath caused me to be more contemplative. I learned that putting attention on my breath required a moment of intense listening. In this silence, I began to find calm and peace. My conscious breath led me to a place of deep meditation. Here, I found the space to reflect on my life, and the freedom to tap into the wisdom of the heart. Wisdom is always open, willing, and free. It knows forgiveness, kindness, connectedness, and compassion – all of which are essential to having a healthy spiritual life.

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Diving Deeper Into the Wisdom of the Heart

There is evidence that the heart plays a greater role in our decision-making than previously known. California’s HeartMath Institute is studying heart-brain communication and its relationship to deepening connections. Although we have traditionally viewed intelligence as purely a realm of the mind, we are discovering that it involves the heart as well. Beyond the brain, the heart is the only organ we commonly reference in language to express emotion.

We have all used phrases like these: “My heart told me so,”  “Her heart hurts,” or a phrase like, “Your heart knows the truth.” In all of these instances, we speak about our hearts as though it knows something the mind does not. Ultimately, the heart is responsible for filtering the logic of the mind. Some would even go so far as to argue that while the mind protects the ego and creates our thoughts, it is the heart that keeps those thoughts in check.

Finding the Heart Centerpoint of Self

The heart’s center point is the place to go for self-correction and compassion. Let’s look at a scenario where turning to the compassion of the heart causes soul alignment and right action: perhaps you are being judged by a family member and are very stressed out by this. Your mind is full of judgments as to who is right, who is wrong, and why this happened. Your monkey mind is trying to tell you what to do and how to solve it. You begin ruminating on it night and day. Perhaps your anxiety begins to rise. You feel left out, excluded, and hurt.

Instead of continuing down the mind trap of the “whys” and “what-ifs,” move to your heart center point and pause. Take a very deep breath. Simultaneously, clear the space of your mind. Now tune into your heart’s wisdom. You pull up your feelings (“I am hurt”) and ask the soul what it is that you need.

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The answer may be that you need to be fully heard. After filtering your thoughts and feelings through your heart, check in to see what you need to do. If you need to be heard, maybe the best course of action is to invite this person to lunch, one-on-one, and gently express yourself.

When we can honor our feelings and get to the core of what we need to be healthy, we may or may not need to take action. Often, we know how we feel and what we want, but lack the courage to act. Yet, it is the right action that may turn everything around.

Other times, all we need to do is to continue to breathe deeply and know that all is well and that “this too shall pass.”

Your Journey Back to Center with SpiritQuest

Finding your center point is more than a momentary practice; it is a return to your true, authentic self. When you learn to consistently anchor yourself in the breath and filter the noise of the mind through the wisdom of the heart, you begin to operate from a place of profound alignment. This is where you find the clarity to stand in your highest integrity, fostering lasting peace, harmony, and balance in every facet of your life.

However, the path to this deep, inner homeostasis can be difficult to navigate alone. Whether you are finding your stillness amidst the powerful, grounding energy of the red rocks of Sedona or during a guided meditation in our serene Awakening room, SpiritQuest Sedona Retreats offers the sacred space and expert guidance needed to accelerate your journey. Our practitioners provide personalized guidance to help you deepen your spiritual practice, explore heart-centered awareness, and reconnect with your authentic self.

When you choose to step away from the stressors of daily life and immerse yourself in this transformative process, you aren’t just taking a break – you are reclaiming your power and realigning with the soul. Allow us to support you as you move beyond judgment and into the flow of your most vibrant, heart-centered life.

Are you ready to embark on this journey and reclaim your center point with one of our specialized spiritual retreats?