Free your breath, free your life

"Many of us today feel like we're suffocating, like we just don't have enough time, space, and energy to live in a way that would make us truly happy. We often feel ourselves distracted and pulled in many directions, unable to move toward or from our own center, and unable to relate fully and freely with others. We also frequently find ourselves holding our breath in the ever-increasing stressful circumstances of our lives or breathing in fast, irregular, and restricted ways. This is no small problem. Over time, such breathing reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the cells of our brain and body. A chronic reduction of oxygen is not only instrumental in many diseases, but it also reduces our capacity to sense, feel, think, and act in clear, sensitive and effective ways.

The way we breathe, of course, is often a revealing metaphor for our willingness or ability to experience what is actually going on inside ourselves and to move freely through and within our lives and ourselves. For some of us, for example, our restricted, superficial breathing is our unconscious way of suppressing our emotions, of feeling less. Opening up the restrictions in our breathing can help us open up the experiental spaces of own minds and bodies and learn how to live in the full expanse of the present moment. It is in the spacious reality of the precious moment that real exploration, healing, and wholeness can take place."

From: Free Your Breath, Free Your Life by Dennis Lewis (2004, Shambhala Publications)