Dancing with the Air Element

Air allows flow and movement. When a strong wind arises, let it blow away your negative karma. When a gentle breeze arises, let it carry away discomfort, fear, and negative thoughts.

To begin, take three slow deep breaths, inhaling slowly and then exhaling fully. Feel the movement of air in your breath. Feel the air in the wind against your skin. Internalize it—the freedom of it, the quick intelligence of it. Feel the life moving in your flesh and in your thoughts, and the energy moving in the channels of the body. Recognize the air in the movement of the heart, and the movement of the consciousness. The principal quality of air is flexibility; it is free.

Air lifts the spirit, lifts the mood. When you’re feeling down or depressed, connect to air. Air is light, unbound, pervasive. Internalize that. When stuck in an argument, in a depression, in a narrow point of view, connect to the flexibility of air. Escape the prison of constricted mental habits by connecting with air and flying above the walls of negative condition. Connect with air to build vitality and to develop greater freedom.

When the air element within you is well balanced, you can readily transform negative mind states into positive ones—hate into love, pessimism into optimism, gloom into joy. We can easily resolve worries and concerns through this transformation. There is a playfulness about you. Air has to do with curiosity and discovery. Obstacles become opportunities for learning.

We can reflect on where you most sense a lack of freedom and flexibility. Do you feel constrained by the conditions of your life? Are you weighed down by family issues or ongoing conflict with your boss, or a weak or negative sense of self? How long has this lack of movement been present in your life? 

Then we can move our bodies in playful, flowing, flexible, and free ways. Begin to stretch, sway, and move your body. Move gently but playfully. We can connect with the free movement of air and send it to any parts of our body or mind that need the freedom and flexibility. Air connects everything. Air gives us life, allowing all this to be possible. To speak, to breathe, to sing & shout, to say loving words and poems. Air is the element of communication. Let your speech be spontaneous and uncontrived. Let whatever comes out, come out. Just be natural. Just be present to the sounds of the body and speech.

Be with the air element. Feel its energy entering your body. As you breathe in, you can imagine you are inhaling directly into your heart the pure energy of the air. From your heart, feel the air energy expand to every cell of your body. As you breathe out, release any uncomfortable feeling or sense of being stuck. Each inhalation becomes medicine to heal your well-being. Each exhalation releases physical, and mental constriction with playful movement and flexibility. We can cultivate a sense of gratitude for the air element that we are experiencing and recognize how essential it is for our own well-being and the well-being of the world. How wonderful to be so free and playful in this moment. Let your body dance in gratitude.

Sometimes uncomfortable feelings, sensations, or stories can arise as a stuck knot within us. If they do we can do the shaking Ha! Shaking a knot is an opportunity to unleash and release its energy. It is a way to release pent-up feelings or emotions and disrupt your cycle of reactivity. Simply stand up and shake your body all over, like a dog after its bath. Shake your head, your shoulders, your tummy, your arms, your legs, your hips, your hands, and your feet. Shake your face and even your voice and lungs with a long “Ha!” As you shake, visualize that all the stuck knots in your body—the tightness, emotional patterns, obsessions of thought—are breaking up and floating away. After shaking, slowly return to a state of stillness. Let your gaze be soft. Notice how your entire body and mind feel free, tingly, and alive. Rest in a state of nonconceptual clarity. Allow time to rest in whatever you have received from the air. Everything is okay right here. Just be natural. Just be present. Just be.