The Power of Presence and Breath Work
I have been curious about breath for some YEARS. When I learned about its power to heal even things like cancer…I wanted to understand what is right at our disposal INSIDE our own body no matter how rich or poor, healthy or weak. If we have life, we have breath!
If you think about the order of life force, you begin to realize the clue to its power is right there. I.e.: It takes minutes to die without air. (even if seriously trained, you’ve got like 90 minutes. You’ve got weeks without water. Months without food. Yet most of us PRIORITIZE the food. Having it. If we are health conscious, we get into our water - the type and how much. Yet, how many of us understand BREATH and therefore, prioritize it?
So, I decided to take an online 7 day, 3 hours per day, 5am course all about breath and breath in meditation. I know life can get hectic for high achievers like us, so having simple tools to center yourself is so valuable. Gonna share some of my take-a-ways here in hopes of inspiring you to go deeper too.
The course I attended was by the Art of Living: Sky Breath. I thought I was gonna get a little bit and I got a whole lot so I’m bringing you some of the main takeaways. In this class they broke down the different levels of our existence.
7 Levels of Existence:
- Body
- Breath
- Mind
- Intellect
- Memory
- Ego
- Self
The also shared the 4 mainsSources of Prana / Life Force Energy:
- Optimal amount of fresh nutrients of food at the right time
- Optimal amount of sleep
- Breathing, sourcing calm, and an optimal meditative state of mind
- Being 100% with whatever is happening in life, take action, be present, and not wish for things to be different.
This last point about presence really struck me. It reminds me of Eckhart Tolle's teachings - have you read ”The Power of Now”? I highly recommend it for tips on choosing happiness in the moment instead of chasing it. Warning - Tolle takes no prisoners in this book and it’s heavy and worth an audible listen on drives or walks or getting ready in the morning (if it’s quiet). The secrets of yogis, meditators, and top leaders is the ability to choose joy and take action without wishing something was different. “I have no regrets. I am present right here and what do I need to do from this moment on?“
I distinctly remember sitting in a meditative state in a Tony Robbins workshop, and literally heard God‘s voice in my ear saying, “I did not not make my children to feel guilty. When you feel guilty, you block me out and I cannot do my work when you feel guilt.”
Sit on this. Guilt does not equal regret and remorse or being a good person. Guilt is a stopping place and a low vibration where the Devine can not access you.
I digress…
Here are 5 knowledge keys the Instructors shared:
1. Opposite values are complementary.
2. Accept people and situations as they are.
3. Don’t be a football to other people's opinions.
4. I don’t see intentions in other people’s mistakes.
5. The present moment is inevitable.
~Opposite values are complementary. Your soul got into a body for contrast to be able to experience light and dark, good and bad, positive and negative. Experiencing polarity is how we learn. That’s how we upgrade. So when you come across various opinions about how people live life, it allows you to get more certain. Will you stay how you are or change, or elevate, or adjust. So you see, opposite values are a gift and complementary to your elevation. Accepting others and situations as they are. You can only adjust yourself.
~Don’t be a football to other people's opinions. Opinions change all the time so if you’re adjusting to their opinion, you’re gonna be constantly adjusting yourself and not knowing exactly who you are.
~Don’t see intentions in other people's mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. If you add intention, it grounds it into your experience even deeper and could add negative emotions that don't need to be there.
~The present moment is inevitable. All we have is this moment right now. The future can be what you created it to be.
~The class helped me remember I have access to peace through my breath anytime. I'd love to hear your thoughts! What breathing or mindfulness practices help you choose joy where you're at?
BREATH
So many varieties of breath for different benefits to the body. Wimhoff made breath famous with his superhuman feats showcasing the power of breath he used to achieve them and awakening to our own capacities.
I’ll mention 2 breaths right for this blog:
The Ujjayi Breath is amazing for calming the nervous system. It speaks to the vagus nerve - the only nerve that hits every major organ in your body - telling it if you're in danger or not. When you perform this breath, it calms the nerve that sends the signal telling your body to calm the frick down. It also stops the rushing thoughts in your mind. Amazing for panics, anxiety, sleep, and so much more. Google the ‘how’.
Box Breathing warms up the body. Adds tons of oxygen to the brain allowing for a higher capacity of thought. Most people naturally breathe too shallow and the brain is fed a survival level of oxygen allowing daily functions and the resource you’re using instead for higher level of thinking is your adrenals causing long term depletion. Whereas if you box breath - you are enhancing not depleting. Use it to wake up, before a heavy thought project, when you lose your keys or need to remember someone’s name-lol. Google the ‘how’.
This is scratching the surface and I wanted to bring it to you in just this introductory fashion to ignite the question within YOU - “what can this free resource called ‘breath’ do for me”?
Happy BREATHING! XO, Roya
