Chapter One: Healing Our Disconnections (excerpts)

Reconnecting

The breath is our key to reconnecting with aspects of life from which we have become split off. We may have unresolved issues from the past that are affecting everyday life. These issues can keep our emotional or physical energy from flowing naturally and may even appear as physical illness or unwanted recurring behavior patterns. If this energy continues to be stuck, our ability to respond fully to life decreases. We may feel disconnected from our own spirit. Experiences of the spirit, such as when we feel close to nature, when we are in love, when we are feeling grateful, or when we feel tuned in to other parts of life -- these are the experiences that feed our souls. When we deprive ourselves of such experiences, we find it more difficult to be inspired or creative. If we reconnect to this element of life, we can transform the rest of our experience of life.

The breath connects us

The breath is invisible, yet it affects the visible. The Greek word, "pneuma" means "spirit" as well as "breath." Through the breath we can connect our consciousness to our unconscious thoughts, our bodies, our emotions, and our spirits. Because breathing is both voluntary and involuntary, we can bridge these parts of us by controlling the breath.

Controlled breathing has been used for centuries as a technique for psychological and spiritual development. Breathwork is the modern term for a system using the breath combined with a variety of supportive techniques to mobilize our bodies, minds, and spirits for spontaneous healing.

When the breath energizes the psyche for healing, it does so in much the same way as our bodies enlist forces when we are injured. We do not have to think about or direct the healing. The body just goes to work spontaneously, sending more white cells to the injured area, repairing tissue, and bringing wholeness and healing to the body again. The psyche also has this ability. When the body and mind enter a state of non-ordinary consciousness through controlled breathing, our inner wisdom uses the opportunity to work toward physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing, and even developmental change.

Can we have powerful healing and transforming experiences simply by controlling the breath? For those who have not experienced breathwork, this seems hard to believe, but it is true. One man wrote the following after his first breathwork experience:

It took me across the whole spectrum of my emotions, from the most traumatic to the more pleasant. I was extremely skeptical going in, but very pleased after I came through the whole experience.

Why do people participate in breathwork?

People attend their first breathwork workshop for many reasons. A friend recommended it. They feel curious. They are in the midst of major life changes. They have read about non-ordinary states of consciousness and want to try it. They have done psychedelics in the past with good results, but now want to enter a non-ordinary state without taking a substance. They find themselves attracted to participating, but cannot really say why.

For a while I asked first-time participants to write down the reasons they were attracted to doing breathwork and what effect they thought it would have on their individual developmental process. Some of the answers I received in my public workshops were:

Hope it will help me let go of bottled up emotions and memories.

I'm searching for experiential rather than "book" learning.

I'm ready to go to a new level, new layer to jar something loose.

Curiosity, self-improvement.

To free my body of limitations and surrender my control issues.

Help me move through blocks I can't move through on my own.

A friend recommended it. I like the opportunity for growth, the limited defined period of time and the food. I'm not sure what effect it will have.

One woman wrote:

A friend's comments on his own healing got me here. I think it will be opening and healing.

Her experience during that first session was very full. She relived childhood events, birth, and a past life. She felt grief, happiness, sadness, anger, fear. She became compassionate and forgiving toward others and herself. She said she felt closer to God, had a sense of her life's purpose, and felt unity with everything. She summed it up by saying:

I came away with a general sense of empowerment; knowing I will make good decisions and choices. It was good for clearing, healing, refocusing. It would be good for someone writing an autobiography!

A man writes after attending his first workshop:

I loved it! Waves of sadness were followed by awe and joy. I'm fascinated by the process and feel that there is much more there to access.

Another man writes:

I signed up for a workshop and showed up somewhat curious and fearful. I have never been comfortable with group processes or sharing my process or myself with anyone else. However, I successfully entered these uncharted waters and returned unharmed. My experience was not as dramatic as some, but I got in touch with feelings that I was not aware of and entered states of consciousness that I had not previously attained through other forms of meditation.

These examples illustrate different motivations for deciding to participate in breathwork. We each may have a different reason. Here is a closer look at some of the reasons we step into this unknown territory.

Breathing in the midst of life changes

When we are in the midst of life changes, we may want to do something like breathwork. We are usually attracted to breathwork at a time when we are willing to explore. We come when we have the flexibility and the sense of adventure required to expand our idea of who we are and what life is about. Our psyches have called us to attention, and we have responded with the courage to jump into the unknown.

Sometimes that inner call to exploration comes out of the blue. Everything else is working well in our lives, but we still have an urge to experience and understand more. Sometimes we become more willing to undertake the risks of new exploration when we are in crisis, when the urge to change arises from the dissolution of familiar structures in our lives. When we feel in some sense that we have little else to lose, or we need larger, newer structures to accommodate our larger sense of ourselves, we want to try something new.

Such crisis comes in many forms. It may be a change in an external situation, such as loss of a home or the loss of an important relationship through death or separation. It may be a sudden change in our beliefs about life or the world. It could be a change in our own sense of identity. Changes in identity can come about through shifts in career, aging, a change in health status or the sudden recovered memory of childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Any of these can trigger an urge to explore, heal, and move on.

Go to Chapter One excerpts (continued)