We are made of the same substance as trees.
Jungles, forests and trees are often referred to as "Earth's lungs". Indeed there are odd similarities between the shape of a tree and that of a human torso. Perhaps not coincidentally, every language in the world tends to refer to trees, metaphorically, as Earth's main air breathing organ. Furthermore, each time some government needs to cleanse its public conscience after some environmental bad deed, it almost always starts by planting trees. Just as if a tree were a symbol of new life, hence proving once again the tight connection between life and breathing. One may wonder how badly Australia must have hurt itself, to declare a plan of a billion trees planted in its territory. Let us start with some figures: today forests cover only 17% of its immense geographical region.
Plant a tree, grow life. For an entire country.
In spite of how untouched we may still perceive this part of Oceania to be, severe carbon dependency is slowly poisoning it. Australia is tragically late in fulfilling its obligations in relation to the Paris Agreements, due to the very impossibility of freeing itself from the carbon which caters to about 60% of its energetic needs. Yet the country, in the person of its Prime Minister Scott Morrison, expressed confidence in succeeding, by 2050, not only in having new forests absorb the huge amounts of greenhouse gases undermining the area's delicate ecosystem, but also in giving the economy new lifeblood, generating new jobs for a total of 16,4 billion dollars.
Trees then are still a metaphor for new life. So that's Australia's big pledge. It bears remembering that Australia knows how to keep its word. When faced with the recent havoc being caused by plastic, Australians managed to cut plastic use in supermarkets by 80% in only 3 months.
Earth does not breathe with lungs alone.
Surely, thanks to chlorophyll photosynthesis, and also thanks to the linking of ground and sky through roots and leaves, more than any organic entity on Earth trees seem appointed to the exercise of breathing. Yet there is no fiber on this planet that doesn't take the same breath: nothing can live holding its breath. To be able to fully understand this, one needs to observe nature, as usual. Not just at the landscape level: nature moves in the human body, within us. One of the first steps of the Method involves becoming aware of how respiration implicates at least two other physical areas, besides your lungs: the abdomen and the brain. Starting on this path, one will eventually, at his or her own pace, be able to feel how the whole body takes part in the act of expansion and contraction, allowing for a deeper, more complete and more synergistic breathing. Breathing capable of oxygenating blood, regenerating organs, making you stronger and free from stress, overall bringing humans back to the "good feeling" we may have lost in the modern age. So what exactly is this human "good feeling"? That's very easy: being in harmony with life. Just like trees.
