Blowin’ Kisses in the Wind

“Blowing kisses in the wind/giving you love that you haven’t been given,” Blowing Kisses in the Wind, Peter Lord 

We’ve all blown kisses, or kissed someone off. Which way is the wind blowing? Anyway the wind blows. Or is it anywhere the wind blows. Perhaps it’s full of answers, my friend. 

The wind can be in your sails, or at your back. It can be emanating from you as, ahem, noxious amnesia gas if you went hard on ethnic food. 

Someone can be a windbag. You can hang a winsome windsock on your front porch. 

You can get winded from overexertion. You can be long-winded because while brevity may be the soul of wit, your talents lie elsewhere. (Goodness knows mine do, too!)  

In Yoga, we study the Prana Vayus, or wind currents that circulate in and around our bodies. There’s the Apana Vayu, which is the downward current of energy that relates to the eliminatory system. Ha! Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminatory some people from our lives with a simple exhale? (Don’t @ me – poetic license, and all that jazz.) Breathe, baby. 

The downward current nourishes the pelvis, which is where our security and grounding live. 

There’s also the Prana Vayu (a tad confusing since that’s also the name of the whole shebang,) which is the upward current of energy, and relates to our immune system. Breathe in that fresh, mountain air! Isn’t it funny that sometimes we can’t breathe in the figurative sense? Claustrophobia, aimlessness, hopelessness, haplessness, less-ness-less. Breathe, baby. 

The upward current nourishes the chest, for that beating heart. As Jason Mraz sang, “may you always lead from the beating in your chest.”

Moving right along, there’s the Samana Vayu, which is like a yellow bellows at our solar plexus. This one nourishes the digestive system. As the parody song says, it’s the belt-loosening time of the year. Maybe it’s time to not take it all so personally. After all, with everyone else being so worried about their dance moves, and the spinach in their teeth, that they’re barely lookin’ at you! This one is horizontal. No one knows what’s on the horizon. Breathe, baby. 

This in-and-out-ness nourishes the solar plexus, our power center. It also helps with digestion. Remember, kids, digestion isn’t just that burger n’ fries you wolfed down between meetings: it’s also the news you scrolled through whilst scarfing, the fight with your SO, or the neighborhood construction at oh-em-gee-o’clock on a SUNDAY?! 

Next up, so to speak, is the Udana Vayu, spiraling/whirling/swirling, which rises on the inhalation & circulates on the exhalation. This one nourishes our endocrine systems. Whose hormones *don’t* need balancing? Amirite? Breathe, baby. 

Our poor nervous centers are perennially overloaded, but especially now. How can we give ourselves some much-needed rest, depth and breadth? Breathe, baby. 

Finally, although nothing in Yoga is final, is the Vyana Vayu, the all-pervading current of energy. This supports circulation to all the extremities. This isn’t your relative with the other party’s candidate’s sign on their lawn. This is fingers and toes, my friends. Breathe, baby. 

We need to circulate our message to the extremities among us. Not to convert, but to converse. 

“…giving you love that you haven’t been given.” We can show love, compassion, understanding, and humanness to all. (Weeeell, you get the idea.) Dispense at will. Or Will, if he needs some. Remember the old bromide: hurt people, hurt people. 

Put it out there, whatever your particular “it” is. Give it your all. Don’t expect much (if anything.) Not in a “woe is me!” way, but more like an “I gave it my all; now it’s up to the Universe” kinda way. 

If this resonated with you, please feel free to comment below or drop me an email. Until our mats unfurl again, be well.

-M