Breath and Breathing (Part 2)
The Power of Breath
Breathing is a fundamental life process that often goes unnoticed yet holds profound potential for transforming our physical health, mental clarity, emotional resilience, and spiritual well-being. Recent literature and expert insights highlight the transformative power of conscious breathing practices, emphasizing that how we breathe can significantly influence our overall wellbeing.
The autonomic nervous system is responsible for many of the “automatic” functions of the human body. These include involuntary physiologic processes like heart rate, digestion, blood pressure, sweating, eye blinking, and breathing. You don’t plan these responses, they occur automatically.
The autonomic nervous system has two branches— the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic is the fight-flight-freeze stress response and the parasympathetic is the rest and digest calm response. What is known is that shallow breathing to the chest activates the stress response and deeper breathing to the belly signals the calm response. What is of interest in this writing is how you can more frequently breathe in a way that brings you into the calm response to cultivate resilience.
Breath and Breathing: Practical Pathways for Healing and Awakening
Breath is the bridge between body and spirit, physiology and consciousness. Across cultures and traditions, breathing practices have been revered not only for calming the nervous system but also for opening portals into deeper awareness, healing, and transformation.
Breath is more than an automatic function—it is a conscious tool for transformation. By directing and shaping our breathing, we can influence our nervous system, shift brain chemistry, balance energy, and access states of expanded awareness.
Pioneers such as Dr. Sue Morter, Dr. Joe Dispenza, and Stanislav and Christina Grof each bring unique insights and methods, showing us how to use breath not only for calm and relaxation but also for deep healing and awakening. While each method differs in focus and technique, they converge on a profound truth: conscious breathing can awaken latent capacities within human consciousness, providing recovery and stability for anyone.
Dr. Sue Morter: Central Channel Breathing and Mula Bandha
Dr. Sue Morter’s Energy Codes teachings highlight breath as a tool for anchoring consciousness into the body. Her central channel breathing focuses on drawing awareness along the vertical axis of the body—from crown to root—creating a sense of alignment and wholeness. When combined with Mula Bandha (the yogic root lock), breath becomes a stabilizing current that awakens subtle energy flow and grounds spiritual awareness in embodied presence.
Rather than escaping the body, Morter emphasizes inhabiting it fully, using breath to dissolve fragmentation and awaken the body as a vessel of spiritual awareness. Her approach reframes breath not only as a calming tool but as a technology for embodying the soul’s presence here and now.
Dr. Sue teaches central channel breathing as a way of coming into the body fully and aligning with your core. With Mula Bandha (the root lock), you gently contract the muscles at the pelvic floor as you breathe.
Her basic steps are:
Imagine a central column of light running from the crown of your head to the base of your spine.
On the inhale, draw your breath up from the base to the crown, lightly engaging the root muscles.
On the exhale, release down the same pathway, softening but keeping awareness rooted.
This practice grounds spiritual awareness and integrates higher energy into the body.
Ø Beginning Meditation with Dr. Sue:
Joe Dispenza: Breath as Energy Movement
Joe Dispenza emphasizes breath to shift energy within the body’s subtle system and awaken higher states of consciousness. His Heart-Brain Coherence meditation guides you to practice elevated emotions in the heart for a sustained period, allowing energy to move into the brain, bringing the heart and the brain into a state of coherence.
In his Blessing of the Energy Centers meditation, individuals direct attention and breath into each of the body’s centers (often described as chakras), intentionally balancing and harmonizing them. This practice not only regulates the autonomic nervous system but also entrains the brain and heart into coherence.
In his Pineal Gland meditation, Dispenza introduces breath as a mechanical pump. By contracting the lower body and drawing the breath upward along the spine, cerebrospinal fluid is pushed toward the brain, stimulating the pineal gland. This gland, often called the “seat of the soul,” becomes electrically activated, producing neurochemistry associated with mystical states. In Dispenza’s framework, the breath becomes a vehicle for transmuting dense survival energy into refined creative energy, opening the doorway to expanded perception and mystical experience.
In the Pineal Gland practice, the breath is drawn upward:
Engage the lower body muscles (as if gently lifting from the pelvic floor and abdomen).
Draw the breath in slowly while pulling this contraction upward along the spine.
Imagine energy moving upward toward the head and into the pineal gland.
This creates both physiological and energetic stimulation that may lead to profound inner experiences.
Ø Heart Brain Coherence Meditation:
Ø The Blessing of the Energy Centers Meditation:
Holotropic Breathwork: Breath as a Doorway to the Psyche
Developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork emerged from decades of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness. The practice employs accelerated breathing, evocative music, and focused bodywork to shift awareness beyond ordinary limits. The Grofs recognized that such altered states allow the psyche to access deep layers of memory, emotion, and archetypal experience.
Through intensified breath, participants often release unresolved traumas, encounter transpersonal realms, and experience profound states of unity. The term “holotropic” means “moving toward wholeness,” reflecting the practice’s aim of restoring balance by allowing the psyche to self-organize and heal. Breath, in this context, is not merely oxygen intake but a catalyst for an inner journey into the depths of the unconscious and the heights of the spiritual.
Holotropic Breathwork uses accelerated breathing, rhythmic music, and a safe setting to move beyond ordinary consciousness. The method is usually practiced in workshops with trained facilitators, but the essence can be experienced gently on your own by:
Creating a quiet, supportive environment.
Using fuller, quicker breathing than normal (while avoiding hyperventilation).
Letting the breath lead you into whatever feelings, images, or memories arise.
The breath becomes a doorway into the psyche, often leading to release of old emotions or insights into unresolved experiences.
Introduction to Holotropic Breathwork:
A Unified Perspective
Though the methods of Morter, Dispenza, and the Grofs differ in style and emphasis, they share common ground:
Breath as Catalyst – Each sees breath as more than biology; it is an initiator of altered states, coherence, and energetic transformation.
Healing Potential – Breath can release trauma (Grof), restore harmony in subtle systems (Dispenza), and anchor wholeness in the body (Morter).
Bridge to the Transcendent – Whether through archetypal visions, mystical awakening, or embodied soul presence, breath reveals dimensions beyond ordinary awareness.
In uniting these perspectives, breath emerges as a universal key—capable of unlocking healing, awakening, and integration. When practiced with intention, breath allows us to touch both the depths of our humanity and the heights of our spiritual essence, guiding us toward the wholeness that lies at the core of our being.
Breathing Techniques
In his acclaimed book Breath, James Nestor explores the science, history, and personal experiments related to breathing techniques, revealing that modern humans have lost essential breathing habits. Nestor emphasizes that many health issues—such as asthma, sleep apnea, and anxiety—are closely linked to improper breathing.
Some of the key findings from this book include the importance of nasal breathing. Nestor advocates breathing through the nose rather than the mouth, as nasal passages filter, warm, and humidify air, enhancing oxygen absorption and reducing harmful particles.
He is also a proponent of slow and rhythmic breathing. Slowing down the breath to around 5 to 6 breaths per minute can optimize oxygen intake and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and healing.
He advocates for breath-hold techniques, practices like slow breath holds and deliberate resistance breathing can improve lung capacity, increase carbon dioxide tolerance, and enhance athletic performance.
Nestor underscores that conscious breathing is a powerful tool for reducing stress, improving athletic performance, fostering mental clarity, and recovering from traumatic situations.
Jessica Dibb, in her book Breathwork and Psychotherapy, explores how intentional breathing practices can facilitate emotional processing, trauma release, and psychological integration. She highlights that breathwork can access subconscious patterns and promote healing on a deep level.
Dibb writes about the role of breath in emotional regulation. Controlled breathing, the conscious and intentional regulation of your breathing patterns, can help regulate the nervous system, calm anxiety, and create receptivity for personal transformation. She offers techniques like circular breathing, conscious connected breath, and breath-oriented meditation can unlock stored emotional pain and promote resilience. Circular breathing is a method of continuous airflow involving inhaling through the nose while simultaneously exhaling through the mouth, using the cheeks to store air. Dibb emphasizes that conscious breathing serves as a gateway to emotional healing, expanded awareness, and spiritual awakening.
Ø Slow Rhythmic Breathing: (5 to 6 breaths per minute)
Ø Circular Breath:
Conclusion
By integrating mindful breath practices into daily life, you can foster physical health, emotional resilience, and spiritual growth—making each breath a step toward a more vibrant and awakened life.
It is important to allow moments in your day where you attend to your breath, slowing down and deepening your breathing. Even one deep breath can achieve benefits while bringing you into a state of calmness.
Exercise:
Find a quiet place. Sit upright or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes and set an intention: healing, awakening, or simply presence.
Take a moment to provide attention to your breath. Allow your breathing to be soft and gentle, like a whisper. Slow your breath as it moves in your nose and down to your belly. This is known as abdominal breathing or the Buddha belly breath.
Send your breath up very slowly and out the nose. You could blow out your exhale from your mouth, if you like. Now, do this again, spending a few minutes breathing this slow, deliberate conscious breath and breathing. I refer to this as LSD breathing—long, slow, and deep.
Maintain your attention on your breath, watching as it descends to the belly and then back up again, very slowly. Your breath is running that circuit very softly and intentionally down the central channel and then up. If you become distracted, simply bring your attention back to your breath.
As you breathe, visualize a column of light from the crown at the top of the head to the root at the perineum. Inhale gently upward, engaging the pelvic floor. Exhale down the same path, releasing gently. Do this for 2–3 minutes to settle and center.
Now add a more purposeful draw upward. As you inhale, imagine energy rising along the spine toward the pineal gland, as if your breath is pulling energy filled light upward. Hold for a moment at the top, then exhale slowly and relax. Repeat 5–7 times.
Shift into slightly deeper and quicker breathing. As you perform this for a few minutes, allow feelings, images, or sensations to surface without judgment. Let the breath carry you into a deeper state, welcoming whatever arises. Continue this for 5–10 minutes.
Return to slow, steady breathing. Place a hand over your heart. Imagine the energy and insights you accessed to now integrate into your whole being. Rest for several minutes in stillness.
Take moments throughout your days to breathe more softly and deeply, whether these moments are calm or stress filled. This will very likely move you from the sympathetic stress response to the parasympathetic calm response, allowing you to add a sense of peace to your life.