― Nelson Henderson
I know. Not very impressive, right?
This afternoon I went for a walk to run an errand. I thought to myself it would be a great time to practice a yoga exercise I read from Sadhguru which consisted of taking into account the well known fact that trees breathe what we exhale and in turn, we breathe what they exhale and focus on it close to any plant.
Now, why would I do such a thing? Because I am testing these exercises to improve wellbeing. It has been quite clear to me throughout my life that I am better, efficient or stronger when I am in my best emotional behavior and this guru is selling me this practice so I wondered… why not? India had always developed great technologies for these matters and I deemed it worth taking a shot.
Walking through the sidewalk, passing by tree after tree I became very conscious of it and the grandeur of their so, individual and yet various shapes and forms trees and plants come to be, appear in every turn in the city. Makes you wonder… Why are there even trees?
As we go in our daily lives we are convinced everything we do to survive is what is keeping us alive. We are fighting so hard, and yet there they stand. Strong, tall, silent, giving us the oxygen we actually need to stay alive. They allow all our drama to develop before them and they breathe it in. Do they somehow feel the same about us, as we always go in a rush without paying attention to them exhaling their well being?
Bum! Then it fills me, this absolute sense of gratefulness I have heard so many people talking about. Being grateful, often to nonphysical entities. God, universe, “life”. It was so hard to feel anything towards these abstract concepts, but to any tree I passed by, as I was focusing on the fact half of my respiratory system laid there, so beautiful and green, actually convinced me.
I mean, I read about it. I knew about it. I was actually thinking about that experiment of some scientist putting a rat, some plants and water in a glass sphere and they both survived and yet didn’t feel any gratitude. It was just… plain inertia. “The way things are”. Yet, intently trying to breathe what I believed had for me and then exhaling to intently giving them something… hit a different spot. No wonder why he added later in the book, with that simple exercise he, or his foundation, managed to convince plenty of people in a course to plant many trees. Feels so good to be convinced to be grateful.
I took the trouble to look on and about if at any point our ancestors worshiped trees.
Unsurprisingly, most of them were revered or related as fertility deities and of course, women. But not directly the trees on their own.
Well, in modern times we have all heard of people hugging trees. Perhaps it’s justice in a way.
So, yes.
Behold…
A tree.
