{"id":119,"date":"2013-03-20T14:12:05","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T14:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=119"},"modified":"2013-03-20T14:12:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T14:12:05","slug":"what-is-the-breath-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html","title":{"rendered":"What Is the Breath of Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/599652_10151380207274671_547942890_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-120\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/352\/2013\/03\/599652_10151380207274671_547942890_n-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a>In the Song of Creation, otherwise known as the Book of Genesis, the writer says of the first two mythical representatives of the human race, &#8220;And\u00a0God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and humans became living souls&#8221; (Gen. 2:7)<\/p>\n<p>What is the &#8220;breath of life?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Is it not the life energy, the essence of all living things? Is it not God Herself?<\/p>\n<p>You say, &#8220;But it cannot be?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Why not?<\/p>\n<p>What if it is? Consider this:<\/p>\n<p>What would your life be like if, at every breath you took, you did so with an awareness that in the mystery that is this creation&#8230;which IS the mystery of your life and mine&#8230;what if you were actually inhaling and exhaling the very Life of God?<\/p>\n<p>What would such a thought do to your perspective toward today? Toward this very moment?<\/p>\n<p>What could you be facing even now that this profound awareness would not enable you to face with confidence&#8230;without any worry or fear?<\/p>\n<p>Why not right now, take a deep breath and, as you do, see yourself as receiving the breath and life of God into your innermost being? Then, slowly exhale and, with that exhalation, see yourself releasing all anxiety, concern, worry&#8230;whatever it is that preoccupies your thinking this day?<\/p>\n<p>Here is the miracle that is God and God&#8217;s creation &#8211; that is, YOU &#8211; the miracle is, even when you&#8217;re not thinking of God&#8230;you&#8217;re still breathing&#8230;you&#8217;re still receiving the Life of God.<\/p>\n<p>What more could you ask for today? Any day? This is the secret to happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Song of Creation, otherwise known as the Book of Genesis, the writer says of the first two mythical representatives of the human race, &#8220;And\u00a0God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and humans became living souls&#8221; (Gen. 2:7) What is the &#8220;breath of life?&#8221; Is it not the life energy, the essence&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[178,182,180,181,179,25,184,185,183,177,186,176],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness","tag-book-of-genesis","tag-breath-you-took","tag-creation","tag-essence-of-all-living-things","tag-genesis","tag-happiness-2","tag-inhaling-and-exhaling","tag-life-of-god","tag-mystery","tag-nostrils","tag-secret-to-happiness","tag-the-breath-of-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is the Breath of Life? - Your Best Life Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is the Breath of Life? - Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the Song of Creation, otherwise known as the Book of Genesis, the writer says of the first two mythical representatives of the human race, &#8220;And\u00a0God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and humans became living souls&#8221; (Gen. 2:7) What is the &#8220;breath of life?&#8221; Is it not the life energy, the essence&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-20T14:12:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/599652_10151380207274671_547942890_n-300x224.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"smcswain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Is the Breath of Life? - Your Best Life Now","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Is the Breath of Life? - Your Best Life Now","og_description":"In the Song of Creation, otherwise known as the Book of Genesis, the writer says of the first two mythical representatives of the human race, &#8220;And\u00a0God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and humans became living souls&#8221; (Gen. 2:7) What is the &#8220;breath of life?&#8221; Is it not the life energy, the essence&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html","og_site_name":"Your Best Life Now","article_published_time":"2013-03-20T14:12:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/599652_10151380207274671_547942890_n-300x224.jpg"}],"author":"smcswain","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/what-is-the-breath-of-life.html","name":"What Is the Breath of Life? 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Leadership Coach... Counsel to Non-Profits, Faith-based Organizations and Congregations... Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky... Spiritual Teacher... Inspirational and Motivational Speaker. But not always in this order. On the university campus, I teach students the Art of Communication. In my public talks, however, I teach leaders the Art of Leading; I teach everyone the Art of Living...so that... when you come to the end... and, you will come to the end... You're able to look back on life feeling... Fulfilled... Accomplished... Content, Peaceful, and Happy, too... Knowing your brief but important journey has made this world a more... Conscious... Compassionate, and... Charitable place. 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