Learning to Breathe Pt 1 - Using the Breath

Probably the single most influential event in my personal development was the realization that I needed to learn to breathe. I didn't even know it was an ancient practice with deep roots in many traditions, I just knew I needed to and would even if I had to invent it. I was working on a large theater project in Las Vegas in an extremely stressful environment. Budgets were tight, the projects was falling farther and farther behind, labor and supply issues were rampant and people were coming apart at the seams as opening night grew closer. There was NO option for the curtain to not go up on time in front of the sold out audience. On my way up the long staircase to the grid in the top of the theater I noticed my breathing was strained, I was gasping and my chest felt tight. "Uh oh" I thought, this can't be good.

At the ripe old age of 29 I was not interested in a heart attack and was just getting a glimpse of my mortality. I realized that I had traded my daily yoga practice and frequent trail runs in the mountains of Colorado for a high stress and highly unhealthy lifestyle on the Las Vegas Strip. I vowed when I finished the project for better or for worse that I would learn how to breathe. That decision has taken me down many gratifying and illuminating roads in the years that followed and I'll be sharing some of that with you in this multi part series on breathing.

Breathing is our basic connection with the essence of ourselves and the vital energy that is our lifeforce. The breath is synonymous with life itself, if you look up "spirit" in the dictionary, one of the first definitions (and indeed, the very first in the edition I used) is "of or related to the breath"  - it is that which animates us and anything that compromises it robs us of our essential power and vitality.

There's a lot of talk in athletic and healing circles about "using the breath", but what does that actually mean? Use it for what? When someone tells you to breathe into your leg do you find yourself wondering how you can get your lung all the way down there? Impossible! It's a leg and it's already full of muscles, bones and other leg stuff, no room for breath. Right? Wrong.  Try this: Sit or lie comfortably and turn your awareness inside and observe the physical experience  of breathing. Notice the movement of your body, what parts are involved and what parts are not. Does your chest move? your abdomen? your ribs? Exhale fully and then stop. Wait. Want to breathe? Notice what that feels like. When you have come to the end of your ability to withhold the breath, let it in slowly, draw it out and observe how it feels. That delicious intake of energy is exactly that which fuels your life in a very basic way. Now pick a leg and notice any sensation in it, aches, pains, maybe nothing at all, and slowly direct the energy of your full breath down into that leg, imagine the liquidy foggy cloud of energy that is your breath saturating your leg and soaking into the tissues. Exhale slowly and evenly. Do this 3 more times and then sit quietly, notice the sensation of your leg now. Any changes?

Using the breath is not just a metaphorical activity of putting one's attention into the leg, it's also the practical activity of directing the essential life force of the breath into that part of the body to vitalize it. The human energy field is somewhat analogous to a cloud (more on this in the series on Energy) although there are slightly liquid qualities to the energy as well. The point being that is has form and substance and behaves according to physics. Directing the breath is a powerful form of self healing and is used extensively by top athletes as an advanced training process. Most people are either chest or abdominal breathers and use little else in the process. Breathing is the one activity that can use every muscle in the entire body if done properly and the gateway to the embodiment of our consciousness. As we gain a more direct relationship with our breath we also evolve. We come to life, blockages are removed, traumatic experiences resolved, health and strength follow. Such a simple practice and yet historically one of the most advanced in the human cannon.

Try it, spend some time each night before you drift off to sleep breathing 12 long slow breaths into a particular part of your body. Starting with any place that is tight painful or injured might be interesting. Enjoy the rabbit hole.