Breath is the foundation and power of life.
The breath powers the voice. Without breath we cannot speak. The breath supports and affects our consciousness. Our consciousness in turn, affects our perception and our experience of reality and ultimately affects our environment. The quality of our breath allows us to recognise the quality of our life. A person who is gifted and experienced in breathwork, may even read a person by how they breathe.
Every feeling and thought, every mental and physical condition, is first registered and experienced in our breath. Whenever something happens to us – joyful or stressful – the first area it affects, is our breath. ‘She took my breath away’, ‘I was winded’ are a couple sayings we use without realising what they truly mean.
So in heightened or stressful situtations, it is all the more important to work with our breath, so that it supports and empowers us rather than paralyse or disempower us.
Breathwork is one of the most powerful practices we can engage in as it has the capacity to alter our consciousness and thus our life.
When we know how to work with our breath support, we know how to face any heightened and stressful situation.