“The breath of Life connects you to the presence of true identity, where there is neither guilt, nor shame, fear nor blame, but only the living expression of truth.”
Ken Carey, Starseed Transmissions
Art by Kai Phoenix
Breathing is something most of us do automatically. We think we have it covered. But when you start looking into the breath and observing your own breathing patterns there is so much going on as a result of your breath. I have researched and summarised below.
What happens in your body when you breathe fully and deeply?
It is good exercise and circulation – more than 108 bones and muscles are moved by the process of breath! The bones in your skull and spine and ribs move with your breath. Energy moves up the spine with inhalation and down the spine with exhalation. The oxygen supply to our bones directly affects bone formation and bone physiology.
The breath re-aligns your structure, connects your three Treasure Centers/ Dantians internally, and is a pathway for your mental and emotional aspects to return to the energetic core (the Taiji pole).
There is a chakras in each nostril that is activated by the breath. Yogic tradition has it that the male and female energy channels (Ida and Pingala) regulate the central nervous system to the right and left sides of brain, have heating and cooling effects and pass through the left and right nostril.
What disrupts our breath?
According to Tibetan medicine, of five thousand identified afflictions and disorders leading to disease, only six are not a result of a disruption of the full breathing pattern. I often find people hold their breath when they are concentrating hard in a group situation or are learning a new skill.
Shallow breath or breathing through the mouth rather than the nostrils leads to long term weakness of the constitution.
Anger, grief and joy all affect our breathing patterns. Anger shortens and quickens it. Anxiety freezes up the diaphragm. Resentment constrains the hips and belly.
Poor posture affects the breath adversely and limits it to one or two localised regions. This means other parts of your body begin to deteriorate faster as they become acidic and disconnected from the Flow of Life Force being distributed via the breath and the blood.
Why train your Breath? 1. There are health & wellness benefits
Regular deep and smooth breathing brings your body back into homeostasis.
Deep smooth breathing provides rhythmic internal massage for your organs and calms away anxiety, frayed nerves or agitation.
You may also find that your digestion improves because deep breathing stimulates the organs of the digestive system.
You’ll feel better, because deep breathing moves lymph through the body, and releases endorphins and neuropeptides in the brain.
Breathing disciplines regulate the mind by regulating the breath. Tantric and Buddhist meditations, Qigong all employ breathing techniques to center the body, calm the mind, awaken consciousness and release stagnation and blockages.
Why train your Breath? 2. The Spiritual and Metaphysical Dimension of Breathing
Breath is Spirit. No breath, no life. When we inhale, we inspire or In-Spirit. We are literally bringing the spirit in. When we exhale, we expire, or ex-Spirit. We are letting the spirit out.
Come into full Awareness – the breath is your connection to the part of you that straddles the quantum field (the realm of infinite potential) and physical reality (the realm of physical manifestation and finiteness). It is the path of Spirit into Embodiment on the physical plane. In Chinese Medicine, the lungs are where the earthbound soul sits – that part of you that initially engages with the will to initiate a destiny and the process of becoming an actual physical being.
Taoists observed that a 30-second breath was the minimum for good health. Taoists observed that the body makes a positive and profound life-altering shift when people extend their breath to two minutes on a regular basis. Put into modern language – there are internal upgrades possible in the nervous systems that only happen when the breath is extended deeply fully and smoothly.
If you would like to learn more, come to my Breath of Life Workshop, and click the icon below.
