Why Do They Call It BreathWork?

I recently finished leading a weekend program called The Presence of Breath. The program married the powerful facilitation of Transformational Breathing with the Pathway of Awareness of The Presence Process. After one of the breath sessions, one of the participants said she was surprised at how hard it was to breathe.

An interesting comment since most people reading this article are most likely thinking they are breathing just fine and there is nothing hard about it at all. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You may be breathing to sustain life, but that is not breathing a passionate life full of vitality, aliveness, well-being and joy. Every time we breathe we get to choose whether to breathe life in or push back and resist life. When we resist, life becomes difficult. And it was this difficulty that the participant was experiencing.

During a facilitated breath session, we invite a relaxed and open breath that is continuous in nature. This continuous flow has no pause between the inhale and exhale. There is no beginning or end to this breath. It is a great metaphor for life. We breathe in that which we wish to give life to and we breathe out that which we wish to let go of. It is a cycle of life/death/life that unfolds throughout the Universe. Seasons come; seasons go. Leaves are birthed on trees in the spring and die in glorious color in the fall. From the detritus come nutrients to support new life. New leaves are again born next spring. Economies grow and thrive, recess and grow again. Planets live, planets die and out of this galactic soup of infinite potentiality new planets are born again.

When we resist the natural flow of the Universe in our life, it shows up in our breath pattern. Our breathing becomes restricted and sub optimal. This happens over years. The change is subtle so most people don’t notice it. But there is change. At one time we each had the full and open breath of a baby. We have all seen how a baby’s belly moves in and out so easily as if someone else was doing the breathing. Breathing was easy; life was simple, innocent and joyful.

Scientists Miss the Most Important Part

How restricted our breath is, such an important indicator of our wellbeing that breath capacity or vital capacity is the BEST predictor of longevity. While the scientists have given us this fact, they miss an even more important point. Full breathing is necessary for a full life. A life full of all we know of as good … health, vitality, energy, mental clarity, insight, peace of mind, unity consciousness and the list goes on.

How do we open our breath and get beyond the difficulty the participant mentioned? The key is simple. They key is to let go. The key is to surrender to what is, to surrender to the flow of life. It is a simple choice. But such choices are not easy because in that choice everything will change. This is why a facilitator is helpful in a breath session. They can help you move through the resistance.

When we move through the resistance, we can access the causal point of our current life situation. The breath through Presence accesses the causal point of our suffering. It is the point where the breath pattern shut down and our breathing became sub optimal. It is the point at which we decided not to feel.

Suppressed feelings are the root cause of our suffering. These unexpressed feelings are why our health is less than optimal and why our lives are spent chasing something out there to find happiness when all along it was within us. The key to unwinding this always was and is right beneath our eyes. The key is to use our nose and mouth to consciously breathe. We must move from being unconscious to conscious and the breath is the key to this movement.

For our entire life our breathing was unconscious. When we decide to breathe consciously we go up against a lifetime of patterns and suppressed feelings. This is Breath Work. The ego mind makes sure it is work. The ego mind resists. This manifests as difficulty in breathing. But when we surrender to the flow, when we stop resisting and Just Let Go; magic happens. The Universe unfolds in all its glory, amazement, effortless creation and abundance. And in that moment you know that Breath Works. That’s why they call it Breathwork because Breath Works.