Our Breath

Ancient Chinese and Indian philosophies understood the importance of breath and created systems such as Qigong, as it known in Chinese Medicine, and Pranayama, as it is known by the Yogis, to cultivate its powers on the body, mind and spirit.

They knew this to be our gateway to the Divine.

Today, most of us are addicted to oxygen. Observe a highly anxious person and you might find how they are usually short of breath and gasping for their next one.

Our breath is sacred. It keeps on going with or without us knowing about it. And when it stops, we stop.

By connecting our conscious awareness to our breath, we give our egos one tiny taste of death.

Try this by closing your mouth and breathing through your nose.

Next, start to bring attention to the cool air coming in through your nostrils.

Close your eyes and breathe regularly for a few moments.

…

…

…

Nice, huh?

Why were those moments so pleasant? Because when we consciously focus on our breath, we cannot think. We simply cannot think and consciously breathe at the same time.

The ego actually wants us to feel good, it is just in denial that it has to stop doing what is has learned to do best, which is thinking.

By building a bridge linking our egos to a sensation in our bodies that feels good, we give the ego a sensual imprint of why we want it to let go. We say to it, ‘Thank you for bringing me this far, ego, it is time to let go now. Thank you for your service.’

Give your ego respect and gratitude for its service and you teach it to be okay with surrendering.

We feed the ego what it needs to surrender by telling it that through every death there is a rebirth or upgrade. Wim Hoff did not accomplish his miraculous feats of the human body by being in the mind. He upgraded bit by bit by learning how to master his breath, which meant mastering, then transcending, the sensations in his body.

We die to become re-born, again and again, each time getting closer and closer … closer to what exactly?

Consciousness. Bliss. Presence. Oneness. Connection.

Love.

These are the many names of God.