Anti-Anxiety Tool of the Week: Yawning
Yawning. Feeling a little bit better can be as simple as a yawn. Yawning can increase your oxygen intake, stretch and relax various head and facial muscles, and irrigate your eyes and throat by producing more tears and more saliva. Plus it often feels soothing.
If seeing a picture, or reading or saying the word doesn't elicit a yawn, try imitating one. Relax, open your mouth wide, gently lift up your soft palate (the upper back part of your throat) and make yawning noises... ooooohhhh.... aahhhhhhhh...yah-yah-yah. All animals, including humans, do it frequently, and quite naturally.
If you need some inspiration--or just a good laugh--check out some great yawn photos at https://unsplash.com/s/photos/yawn.
This tool is from the third Toolkit in case you want to check it out. And here's a link to the Index of all toolkits.
Cold and Starlight Turn to Gold
I consider myself a mystic--that is, someone who gratefully seeks, and not infrequently experiences, a loving and inexplicable sense of connection with a power greater than myself. Though I choose to call that power God, I know the word is fraught for many people. Yet, I expect, it is not specific enough for others.
Be that as it may, the song below is about a time I experienced that sense of connection one winter morning, long ago.
It is early morning winter,
cold and starlight turn to gold.
Slowly I awake to find you
standing where I saw you last.
Freshness fills my room,
you say hello.
Smile your eyes and
bright touch
my sleepy, dusty soul this morning.
Breathe your life into me,
set me free.
You are life unto me,
life to me.
May we all feel Presence deep in our hearts as we walk through the dark--and the light--of winter.
Until next time,
Dawn
"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out." John 1:5
Photo credits:
Girl at window, Kate Williams, unSplash
Puppy yawning, Daniel Lincoln, unSplash
Winter scene, Jaanus Jagomagi, unSplash