Breath and Death: Inspire and Expire Charles Stroh

In Hindu Vedantic philosophy, prana is vital energy, the source and continuity of life. It is associated with breath and breathing. 
As we breathe, we participate in the rhythm of life; by taking in and letting out air, blood courses through our body carrying life-sustaining oxygen to our muscles and organs. We must breathe in order to live.

We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. But, there is another way to express this phenomenon that is closer to the creative spirit and to the notion of prana. 

To take in is to inspire and to cease taking in is to expire.

Death is expiration. Without oxygen, we will expire. What we call inspiration is a process of taking in, and most of us would argue that all inspiration is life-sustaining. We could probably continue to live without inspiration, but at what cost?

Inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide is merely a quantifiable way to describe inspiration and self-expression. Expressing and expiring are both extending energy outward from oneself, but one of them is fatal;
it happens only once. The other is part of the living cycle of prana, taking in and giving off, filling and emptying.

As we express ourselves musically, or with our bodies through dance or sport, or with words or images, we give off vital energy; someone else will take in that energy in the form of inspiration. Just as we share the air we breathe, so too, expressing ourselves in creative ways contributes to the vital cycle of life, prana.