Our Breathing is a powerful tool that is often overlooked in our quest to heal ourselves and to live healthier, more-conscious lives. The quality of our breathing, of our exhalation and inhalation, reveals a great deal about our self-image, our basic stance regarding life. We can greatly increase our knowledge and awareness of ourselves by observing our breathing in the midst of action.

If we observed our breathing in the various conditions of our lives, we may notice, for instance, how the extent and comfort of our inhalation reflects the degree of our readiness and ability to embrace life at that moment. We may notice that during fear we restrict the flow and duration of our breathing by contracting various parts of our body in order to reduce the energy available for feeling. We may also notice how the extent and comfort of our exhalation reflects the degree of our readiness and ability to let go, to believe something other than the accouterments of our self-image. And we may also notice how during more pleasant emotions we increase the flow and duration of our breathing to take in more energy and thus to feel more.

The Emotional Topography of Our Breath

We will begin to receive many precise impressions of the interrelationships of our emotions and breath, and their impact on our overall sensation of ourselves as our ability to sense ourselves grows. We may see, for example, how anger is associated with shallow inhalations, strong exhalations, and tension throughout the body--especially in the neck, jaw, chest, and hands. Each of us, of course, will realize variations in her or his own physical and emotional topography.

Our Breathing Is Influenced by Our Emotions

By awareness of our breathing and a deep work of self-sensing, we not only learn about the subtle, constantly changing needs of our bodies, but also start to learn about the ways in which our emotions and our breathing influence each other, our health, and well-being. By listening to the sensation of our body, especially our breathing, not only when we are in quiet circumstances but also when we are in the middle of the difficult situations of our lives, we become aware of connections between parts of ourselves that ordinarily escape our attention. By sensing the way our breathing changes in relation to changing circumstances, we begin to learn about the intimate relationship of our breathing to our overall sense of ourselves. This new, direct knowledge of ourselves in action gives our brain and nervous system the knowledge and perspective it needs to help free us from our habitual psychophysical patterns of action and reaction. Self-sensing helps create new connections between existing neurons in the brain and nervous system. These new connections help increase our overall consciousness, and promote greater sensitivity and flexibility in our perception and behavior.

Restricted Breathing and Self-Image

As we receive more impressions of ourselves through self-sensing, we will see that in general our breathing, like our self-image, is very restricted. Most of us are shallow breathers: our breath is confined mainly to the top of the chest. If we are to live healthy, conscious fives, however, we need to rediscover the inner mental, emotional and physical conditions necessary for free, natural breathing, breathing which involves not only the various spaces of our chest but also the spaces of our belly, back, spine, and solar plexus. Free, natural breathing can have an enormous beneficial impact on our health and well-being, as well as on our spiritual development.

For free, natural breathing to become the norm rather than the exception in our lives, however, we need to learn how to sense ourselves from the inside and to release the unnecessary tensions associated with our self-image--tensions that are reflected evidently in our breathing. These tensions are closely linked to our habitual patterns of thinking and feeling, patterns that often consume our energy and undermine our health and well-being. Through the work of free, natural breathing, we can start to get in touch with the energy locked into these tensions, and free up this energy for our health and inner growth.