The Breathing Book: Good Health and Vitality Through Essential Breath Work

For now know that the deep level at which this process is taking place is the level we must enter to return the breath to its original flexibility.

We do not need to create some other breath. Instead, we should focus our efforts in such a way as to seduce our dormant breath out of hiding.

Ground yourself in the present and be aware of any tendency to hurry unnecessarily. Notice when your mind is racing into the future.

This pause is a well, a resource that is always available to you. Know that at any time when you feel tired or confused, hurried or overwhelmed, you can draw from this well for rest and replenishment simply by entering the pause at the end of the exhalation.

This type of breathing is the natural consequence of chest breathing and has all the symptoms of that pattern, and more.

All too often, we may unconsciously breathe so fast that we no longer allow for the resting pauses in the breath rhythm.

The next time you catch yourself hyperventilating notice if your mind is catapulting itself into the future, planning, rehearsing, and often imagining difficulties that haven’t yet happened (and may never happen). You might try reciting the short poem of Vietnamese monk and writer Thich Nhat Hanh as you breathe: Breathing in, I calm body and mind.

Within this pause there is no thought and no movement. You may experience it as a pregnant silence, much like the silence you feel when you enter a forest.

“Deaccelerate” some of your activities. Your breathing will mirror the rate at which you do things.

The paradox of free breathing is that it is a result of deep relaxation, not of effort.