Breathing is Needed for Living
Being aware of the breath is the most simple tool we can use to transform our own relationship to our lives.
The breath reflects the ability to be present in life. One conscious breath can put us in the present moment. Lack of breath takes us out of life. A deeper breath can calm us down. Consciousness is breath. Breath is essential to the process of transformation. The breath is a tool that takes us out of our mind and into our body. It connects. It pulses. It is necessary.
An Audio Version of this post is available to paid subscribers.
We habitually breath in certain ways as we emote, act, witness, and experience life. Breathing is the most simple aspect of life that can be changed in order to live differently. From consciously choosing to follow breath as a daily practice to actively choosing to breath differently in a situation, breath is the portal into unknown ways of being. The choice to shift breath shows a willingness to trust both self and unknown together as entwined teachers toward a more fulfilling life.
Before Open Breath, there is Opening to Breath
Breath changes moment to moment depending on what is happening in life. To really get an idea of how to use the breath when something is wrong, there also needs to be an idea of how breath occurs naturally. Awareness of the baseline, normal, everyday breath is needed. Awareness of the troubled breath has to be assessed for information. The ability to have an open breath has to be surrendered into but not pushed into being.
A sense of choice in life is reflected in the ability to assess life through the breath. The more there is a personal understanding of every day breath, situational breath, and open breath, the easier it becomes to recognize when there is an issue. An issue shows itself through the breath itself. A change in breath or even the lack of breath is the body’s way of pointing us towards our own innate resistance to something unknown.
Not everyone meditates. Everyone breathes. How we breathe, when we breathe, and what we focus on as we breathe are all choices. Inside the breath are key components for self transformation. Intention and attention is needed here. A situation unconsciously comes through in the breath and we can then enter into the field of unconscious information through awareness to the breath. This first foundation of introspection does not have to be in depth. It can just be simple and informative.
The open breath is a breath of flow and effortless movement - in, pause, out, pause. The open breath is an attainable ideal. An open breath is only possible when we are open to life. The ability to have an open breath has to be cultivated. It takes awareness, curiosity, and attention to attain open breath, especially in challenging situations. Every day breath may not be an open breath. Open breath may only happen in moments of extreme alignment or connection. Open breath is not always possible.
Every Day Breath
The breath that we live with is the breath we have the least awareness about. It just is. Many of us breathe without noticing.
We take the breath for granted because it is so intrinsic to the nature of being alive.
As soon as attention is brought to something, there is a risk that it has changed just in noticing it. This brings to mind the “if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does is make a sound?” question. Bringing awareness to the breath has a similar conundrum. Is the essence of the every day breath changed simply by noticing it?
The foundation to a working awareness of the every day breath comes simply through paying attention to it and tolerating it, not changing it.
This can be really hard at first, especially for overachievers or people with low self worth. It is really hard to not push ourselves when the only way we know how to be with ourself is to push. Just noticing, tolerating, and accepting the breath initially may feel impossible. That alone, however, is an amazing cauldron for transformation in life.
Transforming your life into a life with meaning and fulfillment is not about drastic changes. Drastic changes plateau eventually. It is inevitable that the self we are trying to get away from will show back up without sufficient self awareness and conscious change. Transformation is about cultivating a relationship to daily life. This means understanding every day breath and sometimes even consciously playing with it.
Every day breath shifts depending on our overall state of being. If the every day self is stressed, anxious, rigid or depressed, the every day breath is going to reflect this state of being by being less full or robust. If the every day self is expressive, intense, full, and energetic, the every day breath is going to reflect this by being deeper or fuller. The every day breath is the default breath that reflects our default way of being with life.
Situational Breath
Breath is not stagnant. It is always changing, evolving, and shifting to reflect our state of being.
A stressful situation is going to cause us to breathe differently than a situation we feel confident in. A sense of attack or fight will create a different breathing pattern as well. There are complete breaths and incomplete breaths, balanced breaths and imbalanced breaths. I love witnessing in groups of people the way everyone will stop breathing in a confrontational situation just by the change in the energy. It is normal to stop breathing sometimes, but it does need to be noticed for the self to shift within the situation.
Space is necessary for breath awareness and for utilizing situational breath for change. Breath itself is spacious. The more situational breath is assessed and utilized, the more the unknown can speak through the breath. Space is something that we do not often give ourselves in interactions with others. How often do you tell someone you need to take a moment to breath eor need to take a few moments of separation so that you can figure out where you are at?
It is actually not that jarring in relationships with awareness and depth to take space. When we do take space, though, we need to be able to use it to breathe and check in, to build awareness of the self so that the self can be present when the relational field is returned to. Taking space to smoke a cigarette or look at your phone is not what I am talking about here. I am talking about a check in process that has been cultivated enough that it comes naturally to you.
When situations create a disconnect between the situation and the breath, breath is needed more. With a connected and cultivated relationship to every day breath, the shift in situational breath is noticeable. Breathing patterns feel like a conscious choice instead of an unconscious bystander to situations we want to change in or enter into differently than the norm.
Conscious change can consciously be chosen as a result of breath, inviting us to be more present in a situation.
Deepening the breath can bring more presence. Deepening an exhale can let emotion go to allow for a different state of being. Breath so often has an unconscious control over a situational experience. Is it such an easy aspect to just consciously choose again, shift the self, and observe what changes.
Breath and the Unknown
The interconnected nature of breath and the unknown is the reason the breath has so much power over our being and our life. The breath and the unknown are twisted together as part of aliveness. Breath changing allows unknown to flow.
Controlling breath can also control the input of the unknown from coming in, if that input is too strong or overwhelming. When we breath the same, we are cutting ourselves off from this ever important aspect of life and also not giving ourselves the benefit of being in a connected relationship to the unknown itself.
The breath is the easiest place to find the unknown. Through the breath it is possible to make subtle shifts in presence, ways of being, emotional connection, the container of self, and the relational field. This shift in and of itself can be unknown. The flow between ether and physical, air and earth is part of what makes the breath such a potent crucible for embracing the unknown. When we consciously take a deeper breath in, the breath is saying “yes, more life.” A conscious, deeper breath out is a statement of surrender and trust. States of mind change. Emotional realities shift . Unconscious awareness awakens. The unknown flows into and out of the body from this change.
Tapping into a deeper breath always has an unknown component to it. Perhaps a hidden emotion is going to flow within us from this deeper breath. A new expression of self may be found. A postural shift can happen - sometimes even a crack or a stretch. All of these are unknowns that would not have occured without a deeper breath.
Throughout daily life, the practice of deepening breath creates a relationship between life and the unknown. Trust in the unknown can get built through using breath. One of the greatest tools we can use is the tool our own life supplies us with - breath. We just need to consciously create a relationship to it. Who is in?
To create change in the self requires an alignment of breath, mind, and body. Without all three of these components, self transformation stagnates. If only one component of the triad is addressed, a temporary change is created that will circuit itself back into a familiar pattern. Without a flow into another avenue of change, life diverts back to the known. The unknown is required for change. Utilizing the tools of open breath, curious mind, and embodied flow as a connected triad creates a crucible that is needed for self transformation.
Next time I will talk about cultivating tools within the breath to shift our relationship to mind and body.
In order to receive access to the audio version of this post as well as a special breathing exercise and the usual meditation and journaling exercises, I invite you to subscribe to my work or just utilize your free post today.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to mindfullynessa to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.