WHY YOU NEED TO BREATHE

Dana Castonguay
Mar 20, 2015
3 min read

Not every day is sunshine, smiles and kittens. Sometimes the weight of the world seems to fall on our shoulders and we can’t seem to find the spark that just yesterday lit the fire. That’s how I feel today. I’m tired. Not just the kind of tired that requires a nap but the kind of tired that requires a re-boot.

I can feel that my soul is bored with the day to day life things I have to do. And my body responds with a squirmy, out of sorts feeling along with a headache that could stop a horse in its tracks.

I think it’s the halting that fatigues me so much. The start and stop of the journey to self-awareness.

One step forward

Stop (insert a distraction: job, television, kids, and parents)

Wait

(What am I waiting for?)

Breathe

Find an inspiration.

A feel good moment.

Move forward again.

Inspiration, yes, that’s what I need, something to stoke the fire again.

But how do you find inspiration when being stressed leads to underusing your gifts? It’s like to conserve our energy we focus only on what we have to do to get by. Eating, working, and sleeping. There is no motivation to read, meditate, pray, exercise or send other people love and compassion when we can’t find it for ourselves.

That nap keeps calling me. But, I know it will only provide a temporary relief. Truly, my goal is to find the spark that will inspire me back on track.

Deep breaths again.

This is the point where I need to remember I have tools to preserve or increase or even clean up my energy field. And so do you.

Breathing is the single most effective way to change how you are feeling.

“If I only had one tool the rest of my life to give all of my patients, it would be paced breathing, and I’ve said that for 10 years because I’ve never seen something so simple, safe, effective, and cheap produce such massive results in people’s lives if consistently used.” ~Dr. Haase

The doctor says to breathe….

Ok 10 deep breaths. And I think a word like Love or Peace or Joy. It doesn’t really matter what word I choose. It’s how the word makes me feel. I usually choose Joy. At least I want to be the kind of person that chooses joy so I will fake it until I make it.

In and Out. 1,2,3……….

By the time I reach 10 it feels like I have been doing this a long time but it’s probably only been about a minute. Are you doing it? How do you feel?

When I do this, I feel a little less stressed, maybe even slightly energized.

Breathing is critical, we do it all day long and if we didn’t, well then we wouldn’t be the little light of energy that we are. As human beings we have cultivated breathing techniques for stress management, exercising, yoga, lung diseases like asthma and COPD, singing and child birth. As a society we have readily accepted that breathing in those situations helps us to feel better or be better at the activity.

On this journey of self-realization breathing can also be a huge benefit. Breathing can help us slow down our thoughts, cleanse our energy field and charge up our internal energy or “chi”, (the term in Traditional Chinese Medicine for energy.) There are several types of breathing. Soul Breathing, Breath Mastery and Spiritual Breathing are a few I have tried. I am not sure that one is better than another. The intent is to get familiar and comfortable with your body and breathing deeply, sometimes rapidly to help shift the energy you are feeling.

When I have taken classes, which is usually very intensive breathing, I felt extraordinary things. Sometimes it felt like sadness or anger swelling up hot and heavy before leaving my body like steam out of an engine. Other times it felt like a soft hum, soothing and warm, like a song or whisper.

Taking a class is not necessary but could be fun, especially if you do it with a friend and then compare your experiences. I think what’s important is that you take a minute every day to breathe deeply and mindfully. A daily practice to help keep the energy as fired up and focused as possible.