INTRODUCTION

Breathing (or respiration) occupies a very distinctive place in life. It is probably the most familiar manifestation of the ebb and flow of the pulse of life. We know that animate life forms (human, animal and insect) breathe. But inanimate life forms (e.g. plants) also breathe and even minerals are known to "respire".

Breathing is innate and instinctual. We don't have to learn how to breathe. We come into the world already doing it. (Did you know that even fetuses are known to breathe amniotic fluid while in utero?) From the very first breath of air that heralds our arrival here on Earth to the last one that signals our passing from this lifetime, breathing is life itself. The need to breathe is the most immediate of our bodily needs, even before hunger. In this way it is also our very first, conscious awareness of the duality of life and death in our lives.

In human terms, we commonly think of breathing as as a way of taking in air and oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide. But the importance of breathing in our lives and in our development goes much further than just this physiological exchange of gases. Breathing is, in many ways, the foundation for establishing and maintaining all health. It is what allows health to happen.

But not all breathing is equal. Despite the fact that we come into the world breathing as we are meant to breathe, for most of us, it soon becomes something very different. We begin interfering with our innate capacity to breathe properly from the time of very early childhood. We quickly learn to regulate, modulate and sometimes even stop our breathing. Why? Because controlling the breath is one of the most effective ways of controlling how much we feel. Stop breathing even for just a few seconds and you will have effectively begun to numb yourself to your inner experiences.

As such, the type of breathing that is so important to health is not this commonly shallow and attenuated kind. It is something different, which I refer to as "conscious breathing".