Connected Breathing was once an occult practice, cloaked in rituals and taught in mystery schools, passed on only to the most deserving students or worthy acolytes. But now the secret is out! Cab drivers, housewives, and corporate executives are learning it from cognitive therapists and behavioral scientists. Spiritual teachers and healing artists are using it and celebrating the benefits!
Connected Breathing is also called “circular breathing” “continuous breathing” and “energy breathing”
It was called “rebirthing” when I learned it in the mid 70’s. I wrote about my first rebirthing session in an earlier blog. Needless to say, it was mind blowing and life changing! I called it “Spiritual Breathing” and decided right then and there to devote my life to sharing it with the world.
Most people back then called it “new age nonsense.” The average person felt that it was “too good to be true.” This was understandable, because the benefits of the practice were often so incredible, so astonishing, and so immediate. Mainstream medical scientists simply wrote off the many reports and testimonials as hyperbole or wishful thinking.
Despite the cynics, skeptics, and naysayers, I have traveled to over 40 countries in the past 37 years, and I have initiated more than 80,000 people into this amazing practice. And I am only one among an army of enthusiastic proponents! In fact several million people have now been introduced to this transformational breathing technique.
Connected Breathing is used to increase energy and to eliminate stress, anxiety, and depression. It is used to bring deep relaxation and to heal post traumatic stress. It is used to prevent and recover from illness and injury.
It is used to release suppressed emotions, to awaken creative energies, and to build up the immune system. Cancer patients use it to alleviate pain, fatigue, and nausea. It is used in tantric practices and during child birth.
Connected breathing is both a doing and a non-doing at the same time. Wrap your Zen mind around that! I love it because it brings together the two fundamental aspects of Breathwork: “Breath Awareness” and “Conscious Breathing.”
This way of breathing establishes a smooth continuous flow of energy and awareness in the body. It is an easy and natural breathing pattern. It is a gentle yet dynamic form of meditation.The Buddha did it. Most animals do it. And if you observe house cats, you will see that they too are masters of it!
And so what exactly is Connected Breathing?
Simply speaking, the breaths are literally connected. That means there are no pauses or gaps between the inhales and the exhales. The in-breaths merge with the out-breaths, and the out-breaths merge with the in-breaths. Breathing is continuous; it turns like a wheel, smoothly, in an uninterrupted way.
Try it now:
Simply relax your body and give the breathing your undivided attention. Get the breath moving in and out gently, and keep it smoothly turning like a wheel.
Connect your inhale to your exhale, and your exhale to your inhale, without any pauses or gaps between the breaths. No hesitating or holding the breath for a moment between the inhale and the exhale. And no waiting or resting between the exhale and the inhale.
The inhale is slightly active; the exhale is totally relaxed. Pull the breath in slowly and consciously; and let the exhale go quickly and completely. Ride the curve of the breath as it turns from inhale to exhale and from exhale to inhale.
Practice this way of breathing every day according to this formula: 10+10+(10×2).
That means doing it for ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the evening, and ten times during the day for two minutes each time.
If you practice it in this way, I guarantee that you will be amazed by the results! If you think that I am exaggerating, then try it for 21 days and experience the extraordinary benefits for yourself. And please be sure to write to me about your personal experience.
Various thoughts, feelings, sensations, and emotions will no doubt arise in the process. If you don’t allow these things to distract you, if you don’t make them important, if you don’t react to them, and instead stay focused on relaxing and doing the connected breathing, you will observe that all those things naturally pass or fall away on their own.
With practice, you’ll learn to make subtle intuitive adjustments to the breathing rhythm. And in so doing, you will develop the ability to overcome or transcend any negative or limiting physiological, emotional or psychological state. When you master it, you will realize that if nothing can disturb your breathing, then nothing can disturb you!
I believe that Connected Breathing is one of the oldest and purest forms of Kriya Yoga.
It has been rediscovered and restored in our time. You can be renewed and refreshed by it right now—not through strict effort or a long egoic struggle—but through a natural attraction and open attention to that which is always already present and continuously alive in you:
Try it. You’ll like it!
Good luck in your practice.
Dan
For more information about Breathwork, please go to www.breathmastery.com.
Download your free copy of my book, "Shut Up And Breathe!" http://www.breathmastery.com/shutupandbreathe
PS: If you are ready to get onto the Path of Breath Mastery right now, you can enroll in the 60-Day Online Course: "21 Lessons in the Art and Science of Breathwork." Visit: http://breathmastery.com/onlinecourse
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