The Power of Breath – Part 1
Everyday, even whilst sleeping, our body works at making us breathe, we don’t have to think about it, we don’t have to actively engage in it, it is a natural occurrence based on our need to survive. Many sacred texts talk about the power of breath and different methods of breathing, methods that we can and often do actively engage in in order to facilitate positive change to our whole being; sometimes we consciously choose to change our breathing patterns, but there are times when we naturally change our breathing patterns, but this could be for our benefit or our detriment. With that being said, that means that our breath can be used in two ways, it can be left to its own device as a survival mechanism, which requires nothing from us, or it can be used more consciously as the power house that it is in order to bring peace and harmony to our entire being.
The way we breathe, the way we use our breath changes depending on what is going on in and around our life. If we think about when we run or walk fast, our body automatically increases its rate of breath per minute, if we think about when we are meditating, we will realise that our body automatically slows down the breathing. It can change not only in speed but also in depth. Sometimes our breathing is deep and slow, other times our breathing is fast and shallow.
Moving past the breath during exercise and meditation, we can also see that our breathing changes in accordance with our emotional and psychological state. Anxiety and depression often have their own rate of directing how we breathe, grief and loss also often have their own rate of directing how we breathe, but it isn’t that the emotional state has the power to control our breath, it is that in those states we often automatically respond with a change in our breathing. As our breathing can automatically change in times of stress, fear or even pain, then I feel we can assume that such automatic response is likely to be a warning sign from our body, a red flag to alert us that something is not right, something, whether of external nature or of an internal nature is upsetting the equilibrium of our being. If this is the case, we need to listen to the warning signs that our body is giving us. When the oil light on the car dashboard starts to flash, we don’t generally ignore it, we recognise that it is a warning that something could go wrong, it alerts us to necessary action. A change in our breathing to a more erratic state is our oil light going on, and we must learn to respect our body enough to take heed and make some changes.
With this in mind, I feel we can safely say that if our breath, and how we automatically use it can alert us to unwanted feelings and/or situations, then by actively and consciously changing how we are breathing, we can also change those same unwanted feelings; and although we may not be able to necessarily change the current situation, we will be able to change how we feel or think about a situation, and how we respond to it. We will be able to gain some control back in order to avert unwanted bodily changes.
Because we all have an electromagnetic field, just like the earth, and as beings of light and vibration, we can safely assume that our breath, our way of breathing, has the capacity to change our rate of vibration; which means that our breath, the state of our being, and what is going on inside our mind and emotions, can be changing our rate of vibration and the condition of our electromagnetic field. This means that on a minute by minute basis, or even less, we can be either changing our energy field for good or bad!
If we are radiating our internal state of being out through our breath, it stands to reason (to me) that that same breath with its particular vibration, is being radiated out into the world, good or bad. Our breath is not only affecting our body, our individual world in which we live, but it is also affecting those in close proximity to us. We only have to watch a panting dog on a cold dry winter morning to see just how far the breath travels, and if close enough, that same breath can be felt on our face or even be inhaled by another.
There is power in the breath! How we breathe is instrumental to not just our individual body but to the rest of humanity, we are responsible for what we put out there. If we live a chaotic life, chaos is what we are distributing everywhere we go, and if those electromagnetic waves are flowing like the ebb and flow of the ocean, then chaos will find its way back to us. If we are living and breathing a peaceful life, then our breathing, our breath will have a propensity to send that same peaceful vibration out into the universe, and peace is what we will receive back. There is a saying that I heard years ago which is: If you want an apple tree, don’t plant lemons!
We are The Quantum Warrior, The Master Architect of our life – Braveheart
