I Breathe
Breathe.
The more we breathe, the more we feel.
At the deepest level, all human emotion has great strength contained in it and serves a great purpose. We all have a choice to either awaken to our strengths or cycle through emotions without ever experiencing true transformation. Our real power is in FEELING our feelings, not talking about them, rationalizing them, or judging them, just simply feeling them. Are you willing to stay, touch, feel and BREATHE?
Our breath IS the most essential aspect of our life, and it is also essential in transforming E-motion (stuck energy) into MOTION (energy in motion). Our breath facilitates our dynamic movement of spirit which is available to us all the time. When we breathe fully and with awareness, we give ourselves the opportunity to slow down and feel. Quantum shifts occur for us when our emotions are felt, experienced, and loved deeply. Great strengths are fully restored to us when we are willing to breathe and feel an emotion. Our breath can support us in feeling our feelings, which will, in turn, restore faith, strength, security, and clarity. However, the opposite may also be true, LACK of breath can keep you stuck in negative emotions such as fear, anger, or pain.
Many of us have learned to automatically leave our ‘feeling world’ by constricting or holding our breath. When we constrict or hold our breath we can keep ourselves stuck in the hamster wheel of the same emotion, continuing to cycle around and around again. Constricting or holding our breath will keep stuck emotional energy stuck and we may not be aware that we are doing this. Anytime you breath small, shallow, or contracted breaths, you make it challenging to transform your emotions into healthy, positive feelings. Many people believe that just because they are experiencing emotions such as anger or fear that they are feeling. This isn’t necessarily true, as having an emotion isn’t necessarily a feeling. Feeling is the movement of energy from one state or emotion to the return of great energy and love that was suppressed.
The truth is, that one can experience emotion without transforming it and therefore, it stays stuck in their body until the next time they are triggered. People can sense an emotion without really feeling it fully. For instance, someone may sense fear and not like it, so they try to avoid feeling fear. An emotion is stuck energy until it is touched and felt FULLY. Feeling is transformative and moves stuck energy into a strength. When we touch the emotion with love, then it turns into a powerful strength. This happens when we can slow down, stay, touch, BREATHE and LOVE what we are feeling. In order to actually turn an emotion back into the powerful and positive energy that is contained with the emotion, we must be able to have the courage to take these action steps. When we do, we uncover the message and information that was stored in the emotion. The emotion transmutes into a great blessing for those that are willing to take these steps.
People that operate from a constant stress response are not taking these steps. They are in their sympathetic nervous system and it becomes impossible to stay and feel. They tend to breathe very shallowly and they tend to constrict their breath. Once this fight-or-flight response is triggered, there is no way to think yourself calm. You must be able to slow down, breathe, stay, touch and feel to actually move this stuck emotional energy from your body. When we are in fight or flight, we lose our higher brain functioning. Additionally, these periods of contraction and breath holding create a low-grade suffocation in the body. Suffocation leads to suffering. The stuck energy may dissipate or lesson momentarily but it still gets stored in the body. The lack of oxygen and increased tension hinders the flow of blood, nutrients, and vital energy; keeping the emotion in the body and preventing us from being able to MOVE the emotion.
When we constrict or stop our breath, we lose touch with what is happening in the present moment and we lose touch with our
feeling world’. We become stuck in the reptilian mind and in the emotion associated with fight or flight. When we hold our breath, we hold back our spirit and the dynamic movement of spirit that is available to us. The less we breathe, the less we are able to move the emotion and transmute into strength. Breathing then is essential to being able to move and transform emotion. It allows us the opportunity to tune in to our body and heart. Our breath allows us the opportunity to truly feel. Through breathing fully, we have the opportunity to transform ourselves with every breath and connect with our deepest self, our
feeling world’. Breathing is a way of establishing our deeper trust and embodied presence in what we feel. Our breath takes us into our spirit and into our very core. In fact, in many languages and many sacred texts, the word for breath also means soul or spirit: psychein Greek,animain Latin, prana in Sanskrit and the ha in aloha means the sacred breath of life within us all.
Our breath is our powerful spirit, so if you experience pain, anger, or fear, you can always have your breath guide you in and through what you feel. Imagine fear turning into faith, sadness turning into joy, anger turning into power. Really imagine your emotion transforming into a strength for you. What happens to your breath now?
As you become aware of your breath and work with it consciously, you move into your parasympathetic nervous system, gaining access to higher states of awareness. Your breath will support you in accessing your powerful subconscious ‘feeling world’. Your breath will help you lean into what you feel and will facilitate you in your deepest transformations.
Utilize your breath to soothe yourself into deep feeling. Breathe deeply and invite in feeling. Your breath will ease you, comfort you and help you feel your feelings. Your breath is the ride you take to your next expansion in consciousness. The more you breath, the more you feel. Your breath is your way back home to YOU.