The Deep Exhale Jar

For my birthday two years ago a very wise man made me "a deep exhale jar", a jar to deposit small change ranging from a penny to a quarter depending on the level of deep exhale. A bizarre gift, yes, one that made perfect sense, definitely. Ian had noticed a tendency that I had to sigh, very often, these sighs would have been alright, had they been productive, had I recognized them, and processed the stress that was causing them. But I wasn't.

The deep exhale jar was the inspiration for the title of my blog, "the sigh that blew me forward." Yes, these are lyrics from one of my favorite Florence and the Machine songs, Between Two Lungs, but it felt fitting as a title because I wanted my sighs to mean something, I wanted them to serve their real purpose of release. I didn't take full advantage of the deep exhale jar, instead it served as storage for our duds and suds coins but I'm beginning to rethink it's purpose. Too often we ignore our bodies response to the stresses and anxieties we encounter daily. I hadn't noticed my sighing until Ian pointed it out, but two years later I am very conscious of my deep exhales and can recognize when I need to step back and take a minute for myself. That doesn't necessarily mean that I do it but it's a start. It's easy for us not to be conscious of this, but we need to recognize it and we need to unwind. 

We all need a deep exhale jar. We all need to take a second, recognize what is weighing us down and then put a little something away for the future for all the deep exhales we let out in our present. I've made the decision to take some time to dedicate a little something to myself for what ever is trying to escape through my sighs, whether it's a crossword scratch off, cream instead of skim in my coffee, a yoga class, or a walk around the block, something small that I'm dedicating to myself. We all, at least, deserve to do something small for our selves.