Have you ever wanted to experience a state of zero thoughts and complete bliss?
I bet you have – who wouldn’t? Freeing yourself from the burden of cluttered thoughts and emotional baggage is what many strive for, but most simply don’t know how to achieve it. More and more people are looking into ways to go deeper within to reduce stress, calm their minds, find comfort, and seek answers to questions that involve their purpose in life. Although meditation is commonly known to help in achieving relaxation, clarity, and expanded consciousness, regular dedicated practice for long periods of time is necessary to get results.
Unfortunately, some give up too quickly, don’t trust the process enough, and end up becoming frustrated. In my opinion, meditation is not for everyone! At least, not when there is so much going on in a person’s mental, emotional, and physical body. Telling someone to sit and meditate while they are bombarded with thoughts can cause more discomfort. If going deeper within is your goal, then you need to use the one element that connects you to the mind, body, and soul: the breath.
What Is the Breath?
Breathwork is an ancient practice. Great yogis and sages have talked about it for thousands of years, using the term ‘pranayama’. ‘Prana’ means life force, energy, or breath supporting the body, while ‘ayama’ is to extend or draw out. Both words combined together mean breath control. It is an innate tool that can open a doorway to parts of our subconscious mind, spiritual realms, and higher levels of consciousness and wisdom, all of which the logical mind wouldn’t have been able to reach.
Can Breathing Free Us and Help Us Connect Deeper Within Ourselves?
Absolutely!
There are different beliefs and methods among breath workers on how breathing should be done and how it works. Here, we are going to explore Conscious Connected Breathing (CCB) to heal the breathing mechanism that we have adopted from the moment we took our first breath. This is because our breath has been impacted unconsciously by emotional imprints and mental concepts, inherited from the womb, the surroundings, and beyond. As a result, it has interfered with our natural ability for uninhibited breathing. It is worth understanding that breathing is much more than a mechanical process and far more intelligent than any mental construct.
So, What Is Conscious Connected Breathing?
It is a natural breathing process to free the breath, in which you connect your inhale to your exhale and vice versa in a relaxed manner, either through the nose or the mouth, without alternating them both, for a period of 30-50 minutes. A note here: the duration can vary from one person to another. It was originally known as Rebirthing Breathwork, discovered accidentally by the Western breathwork pioneer Leonard Orr between 1962 and 1976 in which he called his journey “spiritual accidents”.
Since then, breathwork has become popular and many techniques have emerged with different names, such as Holotropic, Shamanic, or Wim Hof breathing method. The process itself takes you on a journey of discovering thought patterns in your subconscious mind and allowing the mind to open up in order to discover higher consciousness that you may have never known existed. All of this happens in a relaxed manner, while breathing air and oxygen at the same time. You no longer become only ‘the breather’, but also ‘the breathed’ – and that is a liberating experience.
How Do You Go Deeper?
Our mind and breath are interconnected, and this becomes evident when you lie down to breathe. Since all the built-up emotions and memories stored in the mind and body are what block you from experiencing your true self, you empty yourself from the burdens of the past and the worries of the futureeach time you experience a session. As a result, allow yourself to be free to deeply explore yourself. This helps you explore spiritual science and psychology on a more profound level.
No one’s experience is similar to the other. Yet, there can be traces of physical symptoms that can arise due to years of the unconscious habit of inhibited breathing. Because everyone’s story is different and their perception towards life is a unique mental build-up, the experience can show itself clearly in the body while releasing energetic, mental, and emotional blocks.
A tingling sensation can spread through the body and slight spams of tension releases can occur, allowing you to trust the breath more and go deeper into a higher state of consciousness and relaxation. These symptoms always subside if you continue to breathe and thereby make the body feel more relaxed and reawakened. Your breath can tell the story of what you think, feel, and believe about the reality you live in. It is a very deep and sacred practice, and having a safe space to experience it is a gift you deserve to give yourself.
When Can I Start?
You can exploreCCB anytime with the help of an experienced breathing coach. Sometimes, your deepest fears and lack of trust in the process can make it challenging to relax and let go. Therefore, it is crucial to understand that gentle connected breathing, staying consciously at ease, and having a fully relaxed exhale are the keys to the successful release of accumulated emotions and thoughts that block you from going deep within. Regardless of your philosophical or spiritual background, CCB is there to add value and help peel away the layers of limitations that you have allowed yourself.
A professional facilitatorcan guide you on your journey of healing and help you clear restricted patterns of the breath. Eventually, after a few sessions, you get acquainted with your mind patterns and understand your breathing mechanism more clearly. Therereally is no goal you need to reach each time you practice CCB – your experience will be unique every single time. You liberate yourself and begin to have first-hand experience of this profound tool. You begin to breathe from the breath itself.
