Breathe in. Breathe out.

I was in a breathwork class the other day. I know it might seem strange to take a class on breathing—something so natural and necessary—but breathwork classes are in high demand around the world because most people don’t know how to breathe properly.

As the teacher spoke about the power of our breath, he instructed those in the class on how to properly breathe: deep inhale in, hold, deep exhale out. He modeled it for the class. You could hear the sound of his inhale and his exhale.

He then asked everyone to face a total stranger, to close their eyes as they took these massive inhales, and, whenever we were ready and felt comfortable, to open our eyes and stare into the eyes of a total stranger. He explained that so many of us long to be seen and yet are terrified of it as well. Staring into the eyes of a stranger is brave—it’s hard. It’s brave to expose yourself so vulnerably; at least, that’s how I feel and felt, so I must say the directions made me slightly uncomfortable. But I was already in the room. So…