Country due for a good exhale after election

As I write this, the election is fewer than 100 hours away. As you read this, the results are known. And no matter what the outcome is, I’m changing my word for the year to “exhale.”Let me explain. Instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, I find a word – or it finds me – as a focal point of the coming year. Perhaps I had a premonition (or was it foreboding?) that 2016 would have its share of anxiety, so in mid-December last year, the word “breathe” revealed itself to me.This was the first time my word has been a verb. Previous words have included “light,” “persistence” and “song.” But it became clear that 2016 was pulling me toward action, toward finding full-time work, for instance, and settling into a new abode. That’s when I recognized that 2016 would be a year of needing to just breathe.First, it was the Super Bowl … although I had been a Broncos believer from the first day of training camp. Yes, there were some heart-stuttering moments, but I never doubted we would be the champions of Super Bowl 50. Mainly, I just wanted Feb. 7 to be over so I could exhale.Sports-related anxiety also bookended this latter part of the year for me, namely the World Series. I have a couple of connections to the Cubs (not the Cubbies, as my Chicago-born mother would have sniffed), so my interest in the Series this year was intensely personal.By the time epic Game 7 took place, I tried hard to enjoy it as just that … epic. But I really really wanted the Cubs to win, and I stayed up for the presentation of the trophy, the MVP, and almost every other celebratory activity, so that I could finally exhale.And, of course, there has been the interminable crawl to the conclusion of the biggest game of all on Nov. 8.My only hope is that on Nov. 9 we can all exhale, and let the healing begin … at our dinner tables, and in our neighborhoods and communities. In our social circles – especially online! – and in our workplaces. Across the state, and, perhaps as the ultimate goal, across our country.We will always disagree about some things, just as we will agree on some others. People and positions so important today may not be as significant in time. People and positions not important to us now may become more crucial for the future. And, without a doubt, we will all encounter people and positions in the next four years that we don’t even know exist at this moment.There are two parts to breathing – in and out. Meditative breathing involves concentrating on both the inhaled pull and the exhaled release, often chanting a manta, for example, or counting. One technique I’ve learned is to inhale for a count of five, hold for a count of five, and then exhale for a count of 10.Try it.It’s the 10-count more than anything else that has seen me through 2016 to this point. And if November 9 finds you with your heart still pounding and your blood still boiling, you might do what I plan to do.Exhale.

Andrea Doray is a writer who still wonders how teams can be world champions when only one nation is competing. At least there is a Major League Baseball team from Canada. Contact Andrea at [email protected].