When we do begin to choose a deeper relationship with our breath it can feel strange at first. Almost like you’ve been ‘caught out’ doing something you shouldn’t. The reaction can be like a fight or flight response where breath becomes restricted and fear emerges. For some this ‘uncomfortable’ feeling stops them in their travels, and they figure – “That was too hard, I’ll go back to unconscious breathing thanx – I don’t need the hassle/drama!”

While a fear reaction can be part of deepening our Breath Awareness – it is often brief and easily passed by affirming a commitment to deepen our personal relationship with our breath. AND by accessing and moving through the fear response we are already deepening the awareness in a profound and useful way. So next time we find ourselves in a situation where fear emerges, we can choose to take a DEEP BREATH and move through the feelings – one breath at a time.

“What’s the big deal about breathing?  We’re all doing it any way!”

Yes – we are all breathing – it sustains our existence. And to go without it for more than a few minutes causes serious brain damage and eventually death. 

In this 5 part series Breathe into Life (available each Thursday for the next 5 weeks) you will be transported on a personal journey deep into yourself. This is where your breath begins.

In yogic wisdom the breath is called prana or Life-Force, in Chinese wisdom it is called chi. As ancient wisdom acknowledged the link between breath and Life-Force energy, experimentation led to many powerful practices and traditions. These included Tai-Chi, various Martial Arts, and yoga (which means Balance [Part 2]) designed to increase Breath Awareness [Part 1] and harness the power of the Life-Force energy through various breathing methods.

"The single most effective relaxation technique I know is conscious regulation of breath."

In many languages - the words for spirit and breath are one and the same (Sanskrit prana, Hebrew ruach, Greek pneuma, Latin spiritus). Native Americans, among others, believe that life enters the body with the first breath, not at the moment of birth or of conception. In this view the fetus and newborn have a kind of vegetative life, uninvested with spirit until the breath cycle begins.

Breathing is the bridge between mind and body, the connection between consciousness and unconsciousness, the movement of spirit in matter. Breath is the key to health and wellness, a function we can learn to regulate and develop in order to improve our physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

Breathing exercises can reduce stress, improve mood, and help you feel energized. Better yet, they are simple, easy, and can be done anywhere.

Enlightenment Through Breath

Breathing To Reduce Stress

Breathing exercises are a wonderful way to reduce anxiety, agitation and stress, while promoting relaxation, calm and inner peace. It may take some practice - and requires some commitment on your part to achieve results. However, the long-term benefits are well worth the effort - a calm and relaxed body and mind are less prone to health issues.

At the very center of our being is rhythmic movement, a cyclic expansion and contraction that is both in our body and outside it, that is both in our mind and in our body, that is both in our consciousness and not in it. Breath is the essence of being, and in all aspects of the universe we can see the same rhythmic pattern of expansion and contraction, whether in the alternating cycles of day and night, waking and sleeping, high and low tides, or seasonal growth and decay. Oscillation between two phases exists at every level of reality, even up to the scale of the observable universe itself, which is presently in expansion but will at some point contract back to the original, unimaginable point that is everything and nothing, completing one cosmic breath.

"Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders."

Since breathing is something we can control and regulate, it is a useful tool for achieving a relaxed and clear state of mind. I recommend three breathing exercises to help relax and reduce stress: The Stimulating Breath, The 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise (also called the Relaxing Breath), and Breath Counting. Try each and see how they affect your stress and anxiety levels.

Hi Everyone!

I am in Russia, breathing and doing seminars.  If you are near by, come breathe with everyone here.  Check out my schedule page http://breathmastery.com/seminars.htm or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for locations

While I was here, 2 old newsletters that did not get published or added to the archives turned up. One of these was done 5 years ago at The Hill that Breathes in Italy,   A great place with great people! I am looking forward to breathing with them again June 24th - July 1

When new students showed up in Aikido class, one of my sensei's favorite questions was, "What have you come here to learn?"

When sensei asked such a question you could be sure he wasn't going to accept the first answer someone gave. 

I was intrigued to discover no one seemed to have a reply that was well thought out. Myself included! 

The longer I studied Aikido the more I felt sensei's question was a kind of Zen "koan”. A paradoxical question designed to show the inadequacy of your logical thinking. 

There was once a well-known scholar, who lived in a mountain in the Himalayas. Tired of living with men, he had chosen a simple life and spent most of his time meditating.

His fame, however, was so great that people were willing to walk narrow paths, climb steep hills, swim rivers - to meet the holy man who was believed to be able to resolve any trouble of the human heart.

Moses parts the waters

"Sometimes we get used to what we see in the movies, and end up forgetting the true story," a friend said to once while we were looking at the port of Miami, "remember the Ten Commandments?"

Of course I remembered. Moses, played by Charton Heston, at one point raises his baton and with that action the waters were divided and the Jewish people walked through it.

"In the Bible it is different," says my friend, "in the Bible, God orders Moses to do this by saying, ‘the children of Israel are to go forward,’ and only after they start walking does Moses raise his staff to part the Red Sea.

Courage in the path is what makes the path manifest itself.