ANDRE BEGIN

Who knew that a barely audible release of air from my mouth could cause so much trouble?

A few years ago, we attended a friend’s pool party. It was a beautiful gathering of a few close friends on a picture perfect summer day, hanging out by the pool, drinking fancy cocktails out of cored pineapples.

And then it happened…

I sighed.

In having been down this road before, I made every effort to try to keep it quiet, but I guess it just wasn’t quiet enough.

The hostess overheard it. Naturally, in being the caring individual that she is, her reaction was to ask if everything was OK.

It was more than OK, actually. I explained that it was a hectic time at work. I was covering for people on summer holidays while the incoming flow of work had not really tapered.

This get-together, that was ideal in every way, was the first time in days that I actually felt in the moment. My involuntary sigh was mind, body and spirit expressing a sense of relaxation.

I took the opportunity to thank her for the wonderful party and that I truly enjoyed myself, even though we had only been there for a short time.

This also happened when my partner and I would be leaving on vacation. The hours leading up to our departure were often a whirlwind of activity and of logistics planning to ensure that everything in the house was in order, was shut off (if appropriate) and that I wasn’t forgetting anything essential for the trip.

By the time we got on the highway and were well on our way out of the city, my lungs would produce a long and slow exhalation that had my partner wondering if I needed an oxygen tank.

But the reality was that I was at a point of feeling that there was nothing more that I could do. There was no more what-iffing about every possible scenario. The sigh was my body’s realization that it was time to completely let everything go as vacation was now officially underway.

More recently, I was preparing a fairly involved recipe with multiple ingredients, several pots on the stove, as well as steps and sub-steps of preparation instructions requiring keeping an eye on the clock.

When I finally got to a point where all of the ingredients converged into one pot on a low simmer, I let out that old familiar deep sigh again.
From the living room, my partner picked up on my enthusiastic release and asked, “Is everything OK?”

My response was that everything was fine, given that the more stressful parts of the recipe were behind me and everything was in one pot on a slow simmer.

This time as well, it was a sigh of relief. That and the fact that I know I am the king of shallow breathing when doing anything requiring focus and concentration to the point of almost passing out from a lack of oxygen.

I don’t know why I hold my breath in those times. It’s not like I’ve ever seen a recipe say, “hold your breath during steps 2 through 6”, but I often do it anyway to completely focus on my recipe rather than distracting, trivial matters like breathing.

Friends, family and colleagues can rest assured, when it comes to sighing, I rarely sigh out of boredom. I rarely feel bored. I simply have too much fun stuff on my plate.

In all likelihood, the sigh may have been preceded by a stressful time or a time requiring deep focus. But in that moment, with that deep sigh, I am letting go and am fully content, enjoying being in the moment.

So for that reason, if you hear me exhaling deeply, please don’t take it as a bad thing. Please take it as a compliment that you have created an environment in which I can release some of the more challenging times in life, and delighted to be sharing time with you.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André