In the sacred Mayan calendar, 8 Iq’ brings balance and harmony to the realm of breath, wind, spirit, and communication. Iq’ is the nawal of air, the invisible force that animates life, carries prayers, clears stagnation, and moves truth through the body as breath and voice. It governs inspiration, imagination, clear communication, and the subtle currents of spirit that guide us. The number 8 represents balance, reciprocity, and right relationship, stabilizing the energy of Iq’ so that expression becomes grounded rather than scattered. Today, 8 Iq’ invites us to align breath, body, mind, and speech, reminding us that when we are centered, our words carry medicine and our presence becomes a blessing.
Even when I was at my lowest—when I had lost all my tools and the toolkit itself—when I quit practicing asana, pranayama, meditation, writing, laughing, and loving because I was so depressed and entwined in anxiety that I could not find joy anywhere, not even a flicker, there was still breath.
Life felt bleak. Everything sucked. I couldn’t find meaning, beauty, or even basic decency in the world or myself. And yet, each night, as I lay down in the narrow plastic bed of my room at the mental hospital, on the thin plastic mattress with polyester sheets and a joke of a pillow, I kept doing one thing.
I breathed.
As I fell asleep, I whispered silently to myself:
I am breathing in.
On the exhale:
I am breathing out.
That was my meditation.
In.
Out.
Feeling the breath.
Sometimes I slept for only an hour or three, and it wasn’t enough. I would get up, pace the halls, feel tormented. Nevertheless, I always came back to the bed, back to the breath, back to the moment.
This is the medicine of Iq’. When everything else falls away, breath remains. When identity dissolves, practice disappears, and faith feels inaccessible, the wind still moves through the body. Spirit still circulates. Life still breathes itself.
Only now, six months later, have I regained my pranayama practice in a steady, embodied way. Breath is life. Conscious deep breathing—pranayama—feels like a need more than a discipline. There is the natural, tidal rhythm of unconscious breath, and then there is intentional breath: guided, shaped, devotional.
So many beautiful techniques exist. Alternate nostril breathing. Sighing. Full yogic breath. Breath of fire. Bumblebee breath. Straw breath. Square breathing. Yawning. Chanting. Each one a different way of listening to the wind inside.
On 8 Iq’, I remember that breath is not something I do so much as something that carries me. It is the steady companion that stayed when everything else left. The invisible ally that never abandoned me.
Breath brought me back.
Breath held the balance.
Breath taught me how to begin again.
Maltiox, Nawal Iq’.
Thank you for the breath that never stopped moving through me, even when I momentarily forgot how to live.
Find a comfortable seat or lie down gently.
Allow the body to be held by the earth.
Bring your attention to the breath as it is—
no need to change it, control it, or perfect it.
Breathing in, know that you are breathing in.
Breathing out, know that you are breathing out.
Feel the air enter the nostrils, cool and subtle.
Feel it leave the body, warm and releasing.
Let the inhale be a receiving.
Let the exhale be an offering.
With each breath, invite balance.
With each breath, invite trust.
If the mind wanders, return softly to the wind moving through you.
If emotion arises, let it pass like weather across the sky.
Remember: breath has been with you since your first moment,
and it will carry you until your last.
Maltiox, Nawal Iq’.
Thank you for the sacred breath of life.
Thank you for the wind that clears, connects, and renews.
May my words be truthful.
May my presence be light.
May I trust the invisible currents that guide me home.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
You are alive.
You are here.
You are held.
Leave a Reply