On breathing.
Put your hand on your chest. Notice how you breathe normally. Sometimes we breathe shallow breaths on top of our chest. Other times we are breathing from deeper in the diaphragm. Relax and breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. You can find a neutral space just by slowing down the breath and paying attention to its flow through your body.
Breath is the rhythmic wavelike motion of energy that flows through the body. It is a conduit for prana, life force energy, also called chi. The cycle of breath creates inner balance and harmony. Various breathwork techniques, such as Holotropic Breathwork or Wim Hof Method, aim to positively alter consciousness and facilitate spiritual healing and growth.
Exhale.
Your exhale is the strongest part of your breath. The exhale draws information down from Spirit. It carries energy from top to bottom. Imagine a cord of light running from Heaven, through the top of your head to your root chakra and into the Earth. Don’t get hung up on how it’s ‘supposed’ to be. Enjoy the creative process as you visualize.
As you exhale the diaphragm relaxes, moving upward into its dome-shaped position and reducing the volume of the chest cavity. As the rib cage contracts, the intercostal muscles between the ribs relax, allowing the rib cage to move downward and inward, further decreasing the volume of the thoracic cavity. Air travels from the lungs, up the trachea, and exits through the nose or mouth. This expulsion of air removes carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, from the body.
Inhale.
As you breathe in, bring your awareness to your third eye. Allow the energy to flow through you. As you inhale, the diaphragm contracts, the rib cage expands. Oxygen from the inhaled air diffuses through the walls of the alveoli into the surrounding capillaries, where it binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells. Carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, moves from the blood into the alveoli to be exhaled. Inhaling is not just a physiological necessity but also a profound spiritual act that connects us to all of life, the universe, and our inner selves.