Breath As Gatekeeper

You know the feeling of a delicious, deep breath out in the woods- the kind where you feel the warmth of the sun in your nostrils, you smell the fragrance of pine needles as they basque in the light of day; you literally inhale the essence of the land and the purity of presence. 

Do you know what I'm talking about? 

If you have even had one experience like this, you know that you cannot forget it. While it is the simplest thing that could ever be- taking a breath- it is also among the most profound experiences you can have. 

Why is that? 

While breath is the physical and cellular mechanism that keeps you alive, oxygenates and energizes every cell and system of your body and clears waste- it is also a gatekeeper of consciousness. Some might say, THE gatekeeper of consciousness. 

The breath opens, leads and guides the way- to everything. 

What Is A Gatekeeper of Consciousness? 

A gatekeeper is a guardian over a gate, doorway or threshold; charged with the duty of discernment of who and what passes through, and who and what doesn't. 

To guard and discern over consciousness- your literal capacity to be aware of, be with …life- is among the most important and vital functions of your existence. 

What is allowed into your experience and what isn’t, is a very big deal. 

You may be wondering what all this big consciousness stuff has to do with breath, that simple little thing you do every couple seconds.

Consciousness has everything to do with breath. 

Consciousness Is Breath

When you were born, you emerged from the mystery and took your first breath. This is considered the moment when your life began. 

Your life began with breath. 

Your life continues as breath, moment by moment. 

And one day you will take your last holy breath in this world and journey on to the next. 

Fundamentally, the rhythmic currents of inhalation and exhalation- taking in the atmosphere around you into your inner realm and returning your inner air to the external world-  is a very intimate, spiritual dance. 

Breath links you to everyone and everything in existence- 

Oxygen given to you by trees then feeds them in return with your exhaling carbon dioxide-

It is a give and take, the circle of life, and you are an essential, important breathing link in the entirety of it all. 

What magic. What beauty. What a miracle is the breath. 

Health is Breath

The single most available tool you have to enhance wellness, vitality, longevity, happiness and expanded consciousness is your breath. 

Your breath is always showing you where you are at. 

• Shallow, short breaths tell you that you are stressed. 
• Deep, rhythmic breaths tell you that you are in a calm state. 
• Grasping for breath is a sign of panic. 

Simply slowing down to ‘be with’ your breath is an embodiment and stress reduction technique that can be relied upon with great stability. Because your breath is always there guiding your way. 

Breath is a technology utilized in many healing systems, again because it is the greatest resource and rhythmic gauge of your well being. 

In BodyTalk, you use the breath to scan the body- inhales browse the higher frequencies of the emotional and thought plane; exhales search the denser body structures and processes,  giving you a clear and concise reading of you or your client's state of being at that moment.

With intention and awareness you can send your breath to any part of the body to support function, increase circulation and communication or to gather information. 

Because breath is a purely intelligent function and process, it is very reliable at informing you of what is going on. 

Breath carries information throughout the body, informing and communicating every moment of every day. 

To bring it into your practice of self care and healing is the most common sense thing you can do.  

Breath and Nervous System Regulation

The nervous system is very influenced by your breath. 

If you were to start taking short breaths right now, you would start heading into a more stressed state. 

Deep, slow breaths bring a sense of calm- a very simple and effective way to engage your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). 

Longer, sustained breath practices have the capacity to support the reset of your base nervous system patterning, along with other practices like Bodytalk’s Cortices. 

When practiced over time, through establishing a calmer, clearer way of being- you often begin to open up perceptive and spiritual qualities you may not have been able to access before. 

Breath as Spirit

Back to the ‘breath as gatekeeper’ concept, new layers of connectivity are made available over time through breath practices because when taken seriously, your body and psyche begin to understand your commitment to deepening in presence, well being and connection. 

This supports the greater unfolding of the spiritual dimensions of your psyche and its capacity to be in relationship with the worlds of within and without. 

Spirit suffuses all things, breath suffuses all things. They are literally woven of the same cloth. 

To travel into such profound dimensions, you need a strong, fortified nervous system because that is the pathway much of the spiritual energies communicate through. 

When you have been working with your breath and other practices, you have begun to build such a bridge that is needed to communicate with more subtle energies and realms. 

Breath is ‘The Way’

Whatever your intention in life, whatever you are working to do, to cultivate- breath is the way

It is an involuntary process that happens without you needing to focus on it. 

When you choose to carve out space and time to make such an unconscious function of your body-mind, conscious- you bring the light of awareness to a multitude of other capacities, functions, intelligences and hidden gems you would never have known about without working directly with your breath- the gatekeeper of consciousness. 

Life is a mystery. More often than not the most profound truths are hidden right there in plain sight, right there under your nose. 

Or in this case, right inside your nose and chest. 

Happy Breathing.