12/05/2025
The Breath and the Laugh That Bring Me Back
Some mornings move with a kind of ease that brings me home to myself— mornings where gratitude arrives before thought, mobility work wakes the spine, a quiet tonic steadies the system, and where a few minutes with the I-Ching reset the direction of the day. These early practices anchor me giving the morning its foundation. And when I neglect them, something in the structure of the day goes missing.
Lately, especially as winter shortens the daylight, I’ve leaned into two practices that return me to center even faster than discipline – breath and laughter.
When the day tightens around me, someone’s emotional weight enters the room uninvited, or another person's storms spill across my shoulders— I reach for breath first.
Not dramatic breath, nor meditation on a mountaintop–just one slow inhale and one longer exhale, enough to open a little space inside.
But the second anchor is just as important – the laughter I choose from the clip I know will crack my stern expression, the memory that still makes me smile or the joke I whisper to myself when life feels too heavy to wait on someone else to lighten it.
We talk about laughter that surprises us but most days, it’s the laughter we seek, the deliberate, intentional kind—that actually saves us.
Both matter returning us the spirit to its rightful seat and reminding me that I don’t have to carry anyone else’s pain while I’m still learning how to hold my own.
So, breath clears the fog, laughter loosens the weight and together, they give the day back to me and maybe to you too.
