Suggested Meditations: 

Choose one line of the poem that particularly speaks to your heart as your point of focus. OR

Work through each line systematically, one line per session (18 sessions) until you have contemplated each line OR
Read through the poem as a whole and just breathe.

Breathe and know that you are alive.
Breathe and know that all is helping you.
Breathe and know that you are the world.

Breathe and know that the flower is breathing too.
Breathe for yourself and you breathe for the world.
Breathe in compassion and breathe out joy.

Breathe and be one with the air that you breathe.
Breathe and be one with the river that flows.
Breathe and be one with the earth that you tread.
Breathe and be one with the fire that glows.
Breathe and you break the thought of birth and death.
Breathe and you see that impermanence is life.

Breathe for your joy to be steady and calm.
Breathe for your sorrow to flow away.
Breathe to renew every cell in your blood.
Breathe to renew the depths of consciousness.
Breathe and you dwell in the here and now.
Breathe and all you touch is new and real.

- Annabel Laity
published in Breathe! You are Alive
by Thich Nhat Hanh

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