Picture yourself pushing your body into a transformational state by altering the way you breath.
Now imagine that you tap into your most inner emotions, old memories you’ve forgotten, dreams, untold wishes…
Continue breathing and see how you solve the puzzle, heal wounds and light up the journey you want to walk.
Yes, it takes only a different breath pattern and your consciousness to transform your life.
You may think this sounds too simple and therefore unlikely, but why not give yourself a certain length of time and a constant routine and see it for yourself.
The breath, this wonderful gift of life is our first form of nourishment and it will be the last thing we do.
We might take it for granted, but yet, breath is a powerful tool that you can master to tap into your inner wisdom and healing capacity to surprisingly refined levels.
When you foster a change in the way you breathe, a ripple of effects is triggered, for example you can deliberately self regulate your central nervous system and change your response to stress and anxiety.
Simple: When you give attention to your breath and say, inhale low and slow and exhale longer and slower, you are actually sending signals to your mind indicating that ‘it’s time to come down, you are not in a fight or flight mode, so you now engage the parasympathetic nervous system and tell your body to relax, allow the digestion to occur, be creative, stop releasing stress hormones and start the ‘happy ones’ to be produced.
You can even alter the oxygen/carbon dioxide balance and trigger your blood red cells to release more oxygen to the organs so they detox and work better; increase your metabolism and lower the blood pressure; increase the lung capacity and therefore even increase your life span and longevity!
These are but few examples of the benefits of paying attention to your breath.
In over twenty years experience practicing Pranayama, or as we call it in the West, Breathwork, I have discovered and enjoyed many techniques; each tallying and performing a different life changing experience. There are so many that I am still discovering new ones! So many that I have a list of them queueing to be felt, the same way we have certain books we want to read, or come back to read them again.
I cherish one in particular, that through a series of happenings and meanders that life have put me thought, my lovely angels guided me to discover and fall in love with. It is called Conscious Connected Breath, one of the most powerful life-transformational practices within Breathwork.
At the time, I was unaware of the turn that my life was about to take. I was lucky that the CCB and the change of life circumstances happened almost at the same time. I was unaware of the amazing tool that was put in my hands, or shall I say in my breath but thanks to it I now know that it gave me balance through very difficult times.
But how does it do it? Why is it so profound and effective?
When you do conscious connected breath, not only are you breathing though a wide open mouth, but you are not allowing any pauses either at the top or at the bottom; that is you are connecting the inhalation directly with the exhalation. The breath, the air, the prana travels to your whole body by consciously fully inhaling to your toes, limbs, trunk, head; bringing you alight with the exchange of O2/C02. The exhalation is soft, forgiving, allowing, just happening. Your breath is like a dance in harmony between the powerful inhale and gentle exhale.
So many things happen at so many levels when you breathe this way!
As you are exhaling to much CO2, the levels of oxygen increase very rapidly up to a triple the normal amount. This reduction of CO2 will turn your blood alkaline. The change of the Ph in the blood has a direct effect in both the pre-frontal cortex; the thinking mind gets quiet and the Limbic system gets activated. This would normally bring you to a fight or flight mode, but the fact that you are lying down, consciously, voluntarily and placidly opening that space, sends the message to your brain that everything is all right!
In this way, you connect deeply with those memories and events that lie in your subconscious waiting to be re-visited and approached in a new, -adult- way. You connect with your inner intelligence and access a space of healing.
When you think about it, all sentient beings have the capacity for self healing. A wounded animal would slow its activity, change its breathing pattern go within, lick its wounds and heal.
When we listen to our inner wisdom, when we name our emotions, we give time and allow ourselves to feel what we feel and allow this active embodiment, we connect again with our capacity for healing.
This is why CCB is more than connecting with our breath consciously.
We go deep and consciously into our subconscious, connect with it, face what needs to be faced, listen what needs to be listened and dance with what the CCB unearthed for us.
Such is the power of breath: healing, clarifying, connecting and ultimately, bringing peace and joy to your life.