13 September 2008
Posted in BreathWork

Hello Everyone,

If you haven't done it yet, go to www.whatifthemovie.tv. Watch the trailer for the movie: "What If?” It will be released in the next few weeks. If you liked "The Secret” or "What the Bleep,” you'll love "What If!” The film is about overcoming limitations. It's about human potential and what keeps people from fully expressing it. And I have the honor and the pleasure of being in it!

Welcome to the August 2008 Breath and Breathing Report. It is September 11th. I am in Lithuania. Yesterday I flew from Moscow and stopped over in Tallinn, where I got to have lunch with some of my Estonian friends.

One of them Talvi was shining; she was full of energy, and looking and feeling so well! She spent a month on the farm in Mexico this year healing herself of breast and ovarian cancer. I began to travel only two days after she arrived, and so I left her in the hands of the ultimate healer: nature. She ate from the garden, soaked in the hot springs, and rested under the palapa. She also spent a lot of time alone breathing and resting in silence.

Kina was the resident breathworker at the time of her visit and he helped her through her healing crisis. Talvi's unshakable love of life and Kina's amazing passion for freedom came together to create one more ordinary miracle! All her loving friends and grateful clients back home (she is a breathworker and shiatsu practitioner) who contributed money for her trip, and took care of her family and affairs while she was away, also took part.

Since leaving Mexico, it's been non-stop sessions, seminars and trainings in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Italy, Bashkortostan, and Russia. The program in Moscow was wonderful. It was great to see so many new faces, to breathe with so many first-timers, and to connect with so many old friends.

I don't need a reason to feel grateful anymore: life is simply glorious. But it feels so good to send love and gratitude out to everyone who made the event in Moscow one of the most powerful and successful to date. Thank you to Olga and Ada, and to everyone at the Open World Center. Special thanks to Sasha, Irina, Diana, Natasha, Olga and Artyom. Your love of breath and your presence made everyone's experience richer and deeper.

Thank you to Luba for coordinating everything for me, not only in Russia but also in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Bashkortostan, as well as Lithuania and the Ukraine. She is a new mom by the way, and so a special breath of love goes out to little "Andrioshka,” her baby boy. What a sweet teacher, natural breather, and expert yawner he is… and what a lucky little guy to have Luba as his mother!

My visit to Bashkortostan was wonderful. It was so humbling for me to see a number of people with serious physical disabilities put so much faith and trust in themselves and the Breath of Life. And it was such a gift to see their bodies soften and relax, and to watch them become happier and stronger, more balanced and alive.

Thank you so much to Jenya and Julia and Natasha, and Rafina: you not only light up the world, you light up my life! A special thank you to Anya and to Venera. And thank you to Zoya and Dinara, Rosa, Fairuz and Rustem. Thank you to everyone for creating such a gentle and loving atmosphere at the seminars. It was also great to be with Gulnur and her parents in Ufa. For several years, this city was my second home, and it always feels good to return.

By the way, Gulnur is currently having fun in London and Paris. She recently completed her residency in Amarillo and has accepted a position at a pediatric clinic in Springfield Massachusetts. After so many years of constant study and hard work often made harder by me she is finally reaping the benefits! I don't know anyone anywhere who deserves more health and happiness, more peace and prosperity. I love you honey, I celebrate you!   

In Italy, we had the biggest group to date; such a wonderful variety of people! Thank you to everyone who participated in the week. May you always "feel good no matter what!” Each time I visit The Hill That Breathes, the place is more beautiful than before. And as always, John and Gaia and the boys were a delight to be with. Thank you to Monica, the master chefs, and everyone on the Hill.

A special note about John Parkins' book: "Fuck It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way.” I can't remember that last time I enjoyed reading a book so much. It is filled with natural wit and genuine wisdom. It's a must read for every breathworker, and for anyone who is ready to lighten up and get free of whatever ails them on any level.

The book is written by someone who went from being miserable to being joyful by a guy who found his way out of the psychological and emotional prisons in which sadly most people still live. He found his way out by letting go. "Fuck It” is published by Hay House in the UK, and it's available through Amazon.com. You da man John!

The trainings in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were so easy and such fun. What a joy it was to be with everyone in such spectacular nature. I am definitely going back next year! Thank you to Nina and Ella, and to all my friends and lovers of the breath. We certified another group of Practitioners there. Congratulations Jenya, Galina, Sergei, Natalia, Irina, Karlygash, Irina, Yelena, Saule, Nina, Ella, Valery, Ludmila.Thank you all for your love of life, for your service to the world, and for sharing the art of Spiritual Breathing!

After Lithuania, I'll spend another ten days in the Ukraine, and be back in Boston on October 10th. I'll be in Santa Barbara on October 20. Contact Serena, or let me know if you'd like to take part in the sessions and seminars there.

My plan is to be back in the Baja before November 1st and get some work done on the farm. Anyone with building and or farming skills is welcome to join me. The Life Skills and Healing Arts Training and the Breathwork Practitioner and Apprenticeship Program will be ongoing, and it is open for registration. You are invited to Baja Bio Sana for a day, a week, a month, or longer… anytime between November and July.

Los Cabos is a world class vacation resort, and our little piece of paradise is a perfect place for rest and recreation. Its is a great place to meet conscious breathers, organic farmers, herbalists, yoga practitioners, bodyworkers, permaculturists, natural healers, spiritual teachers, singers and dancers, and lovers of life from around the world. It's also the perfect place to meet yourself, and to reconnect to your Source.

I can't wait to see how the bananas and papayas are doing. It will be so good to create new vegetable gardens. It will be so good to relax into the simple rhythms of life. Sun comes up, wake. Sun goes down, sleep. Gets too cool, sit by the fire. Gets too hot, sit in the shade. Shake a tree for breakfast. Graze in the garden for lunch. Play in the ocean. Watch the whales. Hike in the mountains. Listen to the birds. Swim in the streams. Soak in the hot springs. Lay in the hammock… Aaaahhhh!

Breathing Journal…

I've been living with the "Expansive Breath” these days. During the inhale I feel the actual sensations of expansion front to back, top to bottom, side to side. During the exhale, I imagine continuing to expand beyond the body. I do this with the sense that something flows in when I breathe out, and something flows out when I breathe in. So you'll excuse me if I seem a bit fuzzy and borderless!

I read that we have about fifty trillion cells in our body. About one trillion of those cells make up our nervous system. Isn't it amazing that all these cells get along perfectly well? They all cooperate together to create perfect health. Imagine: trillions of cells, each with their own mind, yet sharing a common goal: What an amazing and precious gift life is! Everyday we should thank and praise our mind and body. Be grateful out loud!

Sometimes the gap between our thinking mind and our loving heart is huge. But we can bridge that gap with spiritual breathing. We can always remind ourselves that we are part of an eternal ecstatic flow of life. Inner peace is always already here; and if not, then it is only a breath away.

There is a part of us that has never been touched by anything that has happened in this world. That part of us or that place in us is still pure, powerful, innocent, unaffected and undisturbed. It is unalterable, impervious. It is invulnerable. It cannot suffer. It can only be what it is.

Whenever pain comes, we need to slow down, to become quiet, soft, and yielding. When pain comes (emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual), we need to surrender to it. We need to generate the energy of unconditional love and acceptance and appreciation in the midst of it.

We can choose whether to hook into a thought or a feeling, and prolong its presence in the body, or to let it flow through quickly and completely. We can choose which thought to hold and which emotion to feed. We can determine which program or reaction we allow to speak through us, or as us.

In any moment, we can stop and ask ourselves: "How does it feel to think this thought?” "How does it feel to imagine this scenario?” "Does this thought bring me peace?” If the answer is no, then we need it drop it like a hot potato! There are always many ways out of painful thinking. Regardless of what the last thought or feeling was, the next one can be anything. We can focus on anything at anytime. Peace is always available, if we choose to go in that direction. We are always already free.

Meditative awareness and conscious breathing reveal the workings of our mind-body system. Thoughts produce emotional and physiological reactions. Emotions produce psychological and physiological reactions. Feelings and sensations produce emotional and psychological reactions.  

Breathwork allows us to interrupt the patterns that lead to suffering. Breathwork breaks the cycle of stressful reactions. Whenever we consciously expand and relax, we interrupt the pattern, we take the charge off the thought, feeling or sensation. Breathing makes it easier to shift, to change, or to choose peace.

Thoughts and emotions such as anger or resentment can be triggered automatically. They have their own life; but on their own, they never last for very long. They run their course and then they disappear unless we resist them or hold on to them unless we feed them. We always have the choice to return to the peace of the present moment; we can simply choose to let the thoughts and feelings dissolve or pass.

We can strengthen this ability to shift out of suffering, and to "come home” again by deliberately thinking of something enjoyable, by consciously remembering something wonderful. If we do this again and again, the mind develops a habit. The same mind that once brought us suffering learns to bring us joy.

Habits are hard to break. And once the mind has the habit of seeking comfort and pleasure, we are stuck with these wonderful experiences! We all have a mental garden, and it is up to us to tend it, to weed it, to guard it from pests and poachers! To develop and maintain a constant state of inner peace, we have to be willing to choose peace again and again… a hundred times a day if necessary.

This breathing, this constant expanding and letting go…it brings such a beautiful sense that our body is more fluid than solid, more energetic than physical… Breathing brings such a sense of openness to and connectedness with all things. It dissolves the ego the illusion of a separate self.

Conscious breathing brings such a wonderful sense of expanding peace and grace, a wonderful sense of pure aliveness. What freedom and peace there is in realizing that I am a figment of my own imagination! What a joy it is to know that I am OK no matter what I think and no matter how I feel!

Since that day in the sixth grade when I fell out of synch with an unconscious world, I have felt again and again this pull toward what can only be called my "Real True Self.” I am so grateful that the practice of spiritual breathing constantly re-orients and re-directs me toward this "Higher Self.”

There is definitely a sense of a separate and unique "I.” But more and more, this "I” seems to be nothing but a temporary wave that forms on the surface of an ocean. It comes and it goes. It thinks what it thinks, feels what it feels, says what it says, or does what it does, and then it disappears back into the ocean.

This wave forming phenomenon happens again and again, from moment to moment, and because of this constant process, there seems to be someone or something that exists or persists through time: an "I.” But beyond or above or behind, this sense of a separate self, is a universal experience, something like pure unmoving awareness, with no past, no future, no name… alone, at one.

My perception of myself and the world seems like an illusion. I have no idea how to be a normal person anymore. I don't even know what that is. Thank God that doesn't seem to matter! Something in me just naturally does what it does it. It's like a game, it's like pretending, like playing a part in a play. I am alive. I am the power of life. I am the life force energy of the universe. I am life. I am a being of light, breathing love into this body and into the world. I am playing at life!

See you on the path….

Love to all,

Dan

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