I think long term meditators may know the feeling, especially with breath-focused meditation.

There's that moment, maybe weeks or months or even years into the meditation practice, when you let out that one breath, and it seems to untie some old emotions. It seems to release this 'old self' you've been hanging onto for a long long time.

It's made me realize that so many people are going through life holding their breath in a spiritual sense, keeping the air in because they're afraid if they let go, there won't be another breath to follow it. Like the network of thoughts and behaviors inside them is the last and final form of their internal universe and once released, they don't expect that kind of life or energy will ever return to them. They are afraid to exhale.

I like to think everyone knows what it feels like to go through that cleansing moment, when you finally exhale after a long and arduous journey. Whether it's after a funeral when a loved one has been sick for a long time, or after a huge romantic breakup when the world seems to not make sense anymore, or just after someone gets their diploma or degree and suddenly faces a vast unknown.

I guess this morning reminded me of that. I've been doing hour meditations every morning, and they're working wonders. In some ways, I'm finally letting myself breathe for the first time in years.