February 2010 Breath and Breathing Report by Dan Brule

16 March 2010
Posted in BreathWork

February 2010 Breath and Breathing Report by Dan BruleHello Everyone, 

For the past two months, I have been playing in the gardens, working on the land, digging in the well, sitting under the stars, enjoying the sun, hiking in the mountains, soaking in the hot springs and cool streams and pools, swimming in the ocean, and generally enjoying Cabo! People have been coming and going. Lots of forward movement has taken place at Baja Bio Sana, as our project develops. And time has a way of slipping by unnoticed when you are in paradise! 


 

First of all, you are invited to visit Los Cabos between March 8-29, to take part in the upcoming Life Skills, Healing Arts, Natural Living, and Breathwork Retreat/Celebration. 

 

Special Guest Trainers: Andrew Jones from Australia, Rebecca Aum from California, and Dalia Beata from Lithuania. 

 

Andrew will be presenting a course on Permaculture: principles, design, methods, pattern applications, water harvesting, soil building, food & forest gardening. 

 

Rebecca will be offering a Breathwork Program. She has been giving sessions since the 1980’s. She loves to share techniques that enable people to experience their true beautiful self and to create their life in alignment with their heart’s desires. 

 

Dalia will also be leading the breathwork program. She was among the first group of Certified Rebirthers in her country. She has a unique spiritual approach to Breathwork and she has a deep connection to Babaji. 

 

Baja Bio Sana is a sacred place where you can renew and re-focus your life energy. (We recently learned that some 7500 year old cave paintings were found in the mountains just south of us: said to be the oldest in the Americas!) 

 

You are invited to come and experience the healing power of pure nature and conscious community. If you cannot make it to Mexico in March, then plan to come to one of the following Gatherings: July 19-Aug 2; Sep 8-23; Dec 14-28. 

 

Now on to the theme of this month’s report: 


A Call to Wake Up and Wise Up! 

A massive shift is taking place in the world. More and more people are “seeing the light.” Many ancient prophecies are being fulfilled. People are making more conscious choices about how they live, what they eat, how they think, and what they do with their energy. The Divine Feminine is taking up where the male ego has failed. 

 

Windows and doors, or “portals” as some would call them, are opening up in and around us. This is a year of powerful changes and mighty projects. We are all moving to higher levels of consciousness. There is no stopping the spiritual awakening that is taking place in the world. In fact, it is accelerating, even as the proverbial financial and political crap hits the fan! As Breathworkers, we are being called to support, to serve, and to lead. Many of us are opening to a new level of creation. We are beginning a unique journey. 

 

Our spiritual energy bodies are becoming lighter and stronger. We are on the path to unlimited freedom and abundance, perfect peace and infinite joy. Ascension isn’t just a new age concept: it is the coming peak of human potential. We can go kicking and screaming, or we can go singing and dancing: but either way, we are going! SDee you there! (Ego… Egoing… Egone!) 

 

In these days, more than ever, love and passion are necessary. If you don’t love where your life is heading, if you don’t feel passionate about what you are doing: then change your course, do something else! Now is the time to close the gap between what your heart truly desires and what you routinely do on a day-to-day basis. If you are stuck in a job you don’t like: then quit: right now, today! Get over your fears. Get through your doubts. Let your highest purpose in life be fulfilled. If you want support on the way, come to Mexico and hang out on the land, or meet me on the path somewhere in the world. 

 

I am writing to you from Ventura California, where we are completing a One Year Practitioner Training. Congratulations and thank you to our new little group of loving and wise graduates: Georgina, Grace, Linda, and Shari! 

 

The following are my notes from what these wonderful women shared today about their personal process and the benefits they are seeing in their clients, students and others. Thank you all for your inspiration! 

 

Embracing the importance of self-love and self-care 
Lowered my blood pressure 
Quit smoking 
Replaced various medications
Cleared my depression
Became more spiritual rather than religious
Awakened a real and abiding connection to God 
Enjoying many surprising discoveries about myself
Experiencing a greater sense of calmness
Noticing how subtle changes accumulate into major shifts
Greater understanding of myself and others
Feeling more connected to myself and others
Creating new ways of discovery and learning
Awakening to wonderful new parts of myself
Bringing spiritual principles to life
Able to joyfully surrender to what is, as it is
Greater feelings of aliveness throughout the body
Noticing more brightness in the world, more brilliance around me
Much more conscious of subtle body sensations
More freedom of expression
Less psychological baggage
Improved relations with family, friends, and co-workers
Better athletic performance
Feeling more connected to earth energy
Able to energize and calm myself
Able to deal with and alleviate pain
Increased ability to slow down, pause, and take in moments of bliss
Able to consciously respond instead of reacting
Able to interrupt dysfunctional or un-resourceful patterns
More vibrant connection to my inner world
Experiencing feelings of oneness and wholeness
Cannot stop the bubbling up of happiness and joy
Able to use the breath to anchor new information, skills, insights
Less bothered by difficult people, things, and situations
Calmer, more focused
More flexible psychologically and emotionally
Able to easily shift to a more positive perspective
Able to look at problems in different ways, and find unique solutions
Better intuition
Seeing more joy and aliveness in people’s eyes
Noticing a wonderful glow around others
More loving and accepting of self and others
Not fighting and resisting life as much
Less judgmental, less guarded
Connecting more deeply to people
A delightful sense of newness
Noticing that our presence has a real healing impact on others
I am becoming more whole and free
I am firmly set on the path of growth and self-healing
Greater ability to love and accept whatever life brings
More positive attitude
More open to love
Helps with sleep disorders
I can watch my mind
Seeing how my mind tries to change reality to match its ideas
The mind is becoming quieter
More conscious of choices, fears, energetic blocks
Bigger comfort zone, more adventurous
Willingness to explore instead of avoid
More able to say “yes” to life
Seeing my own patterns more clearly
Realize how when I change, other people and my world seems to change.
We are helping people move from being heavy breathers to being heavenly breathers!


My 2010 Travel Schedule is coming together:

 

April 16-20: Kemerova, Russia

April 22-26: Alma Ata, Kazakhstan

April 30-May 4: Irkutsk, Russia

May 26-June 7: Moscow, Russia

June 8-14: Saint Petersburg, Russia

June 18-22: Tyumen, Russia

June 24-July 1: The Hill That Breathes, Italy

July 2-6 Paris, France 

 

I am focusing mainly on Russia again. If you have never visited this remarkable country, you are welcome to join with me in awakening inner peace and promoting world peace. I am also looking forward to another amazing and joy-filled week in Italy. If you can only get away for one week this year, then be sure to make it to The Hill That Breathes! There will be several more stops on the tour. Visis: www.breathmastery.com for details. 

 

All for now.

 

With love and gratitude to the all and the small,

 

Dan 

PS:  I am including here an essay from the book: HOW GOD CHANGES YOUR BRAIN by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman. (I love it when people in the medical and scientific world begin to whistle the song I’ve been signing since the 70’s!) 

 

Yawn! 

Laugh if you want (though you’ll benefit your brain more if you smile), but in my professional opinion, yawning is one of the best-kept secrets in neuroscience. Even my colleagues who are researching meditation, relaxation, and stress reduction at other universities have overlooked this powerful neural-enhancing tool. However, yawning has been used for many decades in voice therapy as an effective means for reducing performance anxiety and hypertension in the throat. 

Several recent brain-scan studies have shown that yawning evokes a unique neural activity in the areas of the brain that are directly involved in generating social awareness and creating feelings of empathy. One of those areas is the precuneus, a tiny structure hidden within the folds of the parietal lobe. According to researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London, the precuneus appears to play a central role in consciousness, self-reflection, and memory retrieval. The precuneus is also stimulated by yogic breathing, which helps explain why different forms of meditation contribute to an increased sense of self-awareness. It is also one of the areas hardest hit by age-related diseases and attention deficit problems, so it’s possible that deliberate yawning may actually strengthen this important part of the brain. 

For these reasons I believe that yawning should be integrated into exercise and stress reduction programs, cognitive and memory enhancement training, psychotherapy, and contemplative spiritual practice. And, because the precuneus has recently been associated with the mirror-neuron system in the brain (which allows us to resonate to the feelings and behaviors of others), yawning may even help us to enhance social awareness, compassion, and effective communication with others. 

Why am I so insistent? Because if I were to ask you to put this magazine down right now and yawn 10 times to experience this fabulous technique, you probably won’t do it. Even at seminars, after presenting the overwhelmingly positive evidence, when I ask people to yawn, half of the audience will hesitate. I have to coax them so they can feel the immediate relaxing effects. There’s an unexplained stigma in our society implying that it’s rude to yawn, and most of us were taught this when we were young. 

As a young medical student, I was once “caught” yawning and actually scolded by my professor. He said that it was inappropriate to appear tired in front of patients, even though I was actually standing in a hallway outside of the patient’s room. Indeed, yawning does increase when you’re tired, and it may be the brain’s way of gently telling you that a little rejuvenating sleep is needed. On the other hand, exposure to light will also make you yawn, suggesting that it is part of the process of waking up. 

But yawning doesn’t just relax you—it quickly brings you into a heightened state of cognitive awareness. Students yawn in class, not because the teacher is boring (although that will make you yawn as well, as you try to stay focused on the monotonous speech), but because it rids the brain of sleepiness, thus helping you stay focused on important concepts and ideas. It regulates consciousness and our sense of self, and helps us become more introspective and self-aware. Of course, if you happen to find yourself trapped in a room with a dull, boring, monotonous teacher, yawning will help keep you awake.

Yawning will relax you and bring you into a state of alertness faster than any other meditation technique I know of, and because it is neurologically contagious, it’s particularly easy to teach in a group setting. One of my former students used yawning to bring her argumentative board of directors back to order in less than 60 seconds. Why? Because it helps people synchronize their behavior with others. 

Yawning, as a mechanism for alertness, begins within the first 20 weeks after conception. It helps regulate the circadian rhythms of newborns, and this adds to the evidence that yawning is involved in the regulation of wakefulness and sleep. Since circadian rhythms become asynchronous when a person’s normal sleep cycle is disturbed, yawning should help the late-night partygoer reset the brain’s internal clock. Yawning may also ward off the effects of jet lag and ease the discomfort caused by high altitudes. 

So what is the underlying mechanism that makes yawning such an essential tool? Besides activating the precuneus, it regulates the temperature and metabolism of your brain. It takes a lot of neural energy to stay consciously alert, and as you work your way up the evolutionary ladder, brains become less energy efficient. Yawning probably evolved as a way to cool down the overly active mammalian brain, especially in the areas of the frontal lobe. Some have even argued that it is a primitive form of empathy. Most vertebrates yawn, but it is only contagious among humans, great apes, macaque monkeys, and chimpanzees. In fact, it’s so contagious for humans that even reading about it will cause a person to yawn. 

Dogs yawn before attacking, Olympic athletes yawn before performing, and fish yawn before they change activities. Evidence even exists that yawning helps individuals on military assignment perform their tasks with greater accuracy and ease. Indeed, yawning may be one of the most important mechanisms for regulating the survival-related behaviors in mammals. So if you want to maintain an optimally healthy brain, it is essential that you yawn. It is true that excessive yawning can be a sign that an underlying neurological disorder (such as migraine, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or drug reaction) is occurring. However, I and other researchers suspect that yawning may be the brain’s attempt to eliminate symptoms by readjusting neural functioning. 

Numerous neurochemicals are involved in the yawning experience, including dopamine, which activates oxytocin production in your hypothalamus and hippocampus, areas essential for memory recall, voluntary control, and temperature regulation. These neurotransmitters regulate pleasure, sensuality, and relationship bonding between individuals, so if you want to enhance your intimacy and stay together, then yawn together. Other neurochemicals and molecules involved with yawning include acetylcholine, nitric oxide, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, ACTH, MSH, sexual hormones, and opium derivate peptides. In fact, it’s hard to find another activity that positively influences so many functions of the brain. 

My advice is simple. Yawn as many times a day as possible: when you wake up, when you’re confronting a difficult problem at work, when you prepare to go to sleep, and whenever you feel anger, anxiety, or stress. Yawn before giving an important talk, yawn before you take a test, and yawn while you meditate or pray because it will intensify your spiritual experience. 

Conscious yawning takes a little practice and discipline to get over the unconscious social inhibitions, but people often come up with three other excuses not to yawn: “I don’t feel like it,” “I’m not tired,” and my favorite, “I can’t.” Of course you can. All you have to do to trigger a deep yawn is to fake it six or seven times. Try it right now, and you should discover by the fifth false yawn, a real one will begin to emerge. But don’t stop there, because by the tenth or twelfth yawn, you’ll feel the power of this seductive little trick. Your eyes may start watering and your nose may begin to run, but you’ll also feel utterly present, incredibly relaxed, and highly alert. Not bad for something that takes less than a minute to do. And if you find that you can’t stop yawning—I’ve seen some people yawn for thirty minutes—you’ll know that you’ve been depriving yourself of an important neurological treat

Back to Top