For quite sometime I really wanted to have someone special in my life, so I would talk to any woman I found appealing whenever the opportunity presented itself. One afternoon I was walking up 8^th Avenue in New York City and a young Indian woman walked past me.

My heart seemed to just fell right out onto the sidewalk and I felt helpless as she walked off into the distance. And then I though to myself "…okay, it’s New York. She may have her walls up, but let’s go and see what happens".

I took off in her direction and before long I noticed her walking into a drugstore. I walked on in, stopped in the doorway and noticed her standing over in front of the card rack. So I asked my subconscious mind the question "Okay, what do I do?", and then I walked on over to the card rack and started checking out the cards in front of me. I then looked over at the woman and said something like "...Some friends of mine are getting married, and the card selection here is really sucky. Can you recommend a place with a decent selection? A conversation developed out of that and we continued to talk for sometime.

I can be shy at times and I felt really nervous, so I started to breathe into the underlying feelings of fear and insecurity. It felt that part of me was overextending energetically as if I was trying to reach out, to hold on or make something work. I then focused on grounding myself by drawing my awareness back to my own body. And then I just continued to breathe into any feelings that emerged as the conversation progressed.

Much to my amazement, working with the breathing practice in this way created a magnetic effect. At one point I stepped back and the woman I was speaking with took a step closer to me. A few moments later I turned my body to the right so I was angled away from her. She then repositioned herself so she was directly in front of me. We continued to talk for about forty minutes, till I reminded her of a prior commitment she had mentioned at the beginning of our conversation.

I had absolutely no intention of influencing her through my practice. My intention was to process my own underlying fears and insecurities so I could get to a place where I feel more comfortable as I interact with people.

I will intentionally put myself in various situations where I feel some vulnerability or other feelings of discomfort and breathe into the feelings as they surface. For instance I may start a conversation with someone I find myself attracted to. Working with the breathing practice under these circumstances enables me to bring the underlying thoughts, feelings and energies that have operated outside of my consciousness to the surface. I can recognize and heal unhealthy patterns as I bring consciousness to these parts of myself. .

We exchanged e-mail addresses before parting. At the time we spoke she was very open to me and engaged in the conversation. But I never heard from her again. And that is very typical of many encounters in New York City. New Yorkers can be very guarded. Fortunately I find much more openness and receptivity in my travels through the U. S. and other parts of the world.

I’m always experimenting with the breathing practice, because I like to find practical applications for these tools. And then I feel it’s important for me to find ways to stay connected to my source as I go through my everyday life. This has also allowed me to develop many of the tools that I use to help myself and those I work with.