Breath as the Gateway

“Breath is the elixir of life. When was the last time you noticed how you are breathing?”

Lisa J. Weiss

Welcome back.

In this article we are going to explore the four breaths. As mentioned in the last newsletter, there are four breaths associated with the elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire.
Each carries, and engages the information (feelings/emotions) differently in the body.
Let’s begin with the Earth Breath – this is the grounding breath. The breath that invites you to set the foundations of your beliefs, values and attitudes. The ones you carry now and the ones you have yet to discover. Most people engage the Earth Breath as a way to calm down, especially when they are angry and frustrated.
You engage the Earth Breath by inhaling, then exhaling and holding on the bottom of the exhale for about 4 or five counts.
The Air Breath is associated with your current and emerging beliefs, values and attitudes. It’s the breath you can use when you need to energize and pump yourself up and/or when you are about to embark on a new adventure. It can also generate heat within your body.
You engage the Air Breath by holding on the inhale between 4-5 counts and then exhaling fully.
The Water Breath creates a continuous flow in the body, and is the invitation to BE exactly where you are. This is not always easy, yet if you are willing, who knows where it will take you.
You engage the Water Breath by inhaling and exhaling with no stopping. It’s about finding your natural rhythm of breathing.
The Fire Breath is the invitation for you to own all the intensity that lives within you. You may think it’s about owning your anger. This is true, and it’s also about owning all the joy and excitement that lives within you. The Fire Breath, like the Air Breath, creates heat in the body.
You engage the Fire Breath by raising your arms up to your nose while you inhale and then pushing them down with force while you exhale.
I always suggest sitting down when you begin to practise the Air and Fire breaths because you may become dizzy.
Choosing to engage the breaths is about inviting play into your world. There is no good/bad/right/wrong breath to use in any given circumstance. Each will invite new information, in the form of thoughts, to emerge. When you change your breath you invite a new way of thinking, which in turn invites you to perceive your world differently.
I won’t leave you hanging… if you need some help with the breaths use the QR code to gain access to the videos on the four breaths.
Until the next time!
Lisa J. Weiss, is a transformation maven, speaker and author. She offers programs for individuals and organizations seeking to break old patterns, communicate more effectively and connect more deeply.
Over the many years of working with individuals and groups Lisa has found that most of her clients tend to focus on the body, the mind and the spirit separately. In order for healing to take place all three need to be engaged simultaneously.
Her book Breath Sensations Words, available on Amazon.ca, is a gateway for you to deepen your awareness of the mind, body and spirit in real time.