Andrew Smart - Breathwork: How to Use Your Breath to Change Your Life (Breathing Techniques for Anxiety Relief and Stress, Breath Exercises for Mindfulness and Self-Care)

Dedication

To a fourth dimension.
May you be rocketed there.

This is a book about breathwork. As such, this book provides content related to physical and mental health issues. The information contained in this book is presented for educational purposes only. This book is in no way intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. If you seek to use breathwork to treat a physical and / or mental condition, please consult with your physician or a licensed healthcare provider first. Breathe at your own risk.

Text copyright 2020 by Andrew Smart.
Illustration copyright 2020 by Eric Nyquist.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN 978-1-4521-8122-6 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4521-8162-2 (epub, mobi)

Design by Lizzie Vaughan.
Typeset by Katy Brown.
Typset in Noe and TT Norms.

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

A book about breath is a book about life.

I definitely had a life before I discovered breathwork. And I have one after. Its the manner in which I live it that has changed. In some ways, the changes are subtle; in others, profound.

At this point, Im very certain of one thing: However Im breathing is however Im living. If I find myself holding my breath, Im likely holding back, controlling, siphoning off energy from my creativity and my most important relationships. If my breath is shallow, Im not reaching the most powerful depths in spirituality, in work, and in love.

When I first discovered breathwork, I was recently sober. Raw would be an understatement. I came into it with zero expectations. In fact, at my first session, I thought we were all coming together to sit down for a quiet, guided meditation.

Instead, it was something altogether different. It was activating, intense, difficult. From an energetic standpoint, I felt my sternum breaking open, revealing my heart for the first time. I felt ecstasy and agony. And while, in life, I had known unconditional love, during this breathwork session, I felt it for the first time. As the great Dutch athlete and breathwork pioneer Wim Hof says, Feeling is understanding. And in this altered statecultivated 100 percent without drugsI escaped the thinking mind for a time and experienced spirituality firsthand. I instantly released long-held resentments. I left my body and watched myself from a birds-eye view, lying on a concrete floor, breathing deeply, and laughed at the beauty and comedy that is life on Earth. My mind, body, and spirit were blown.

It took months for me to try it again. But after a period of fear and resistance (and with the encouragement of a few great guidesAnn Faison, Lauren Spencer King, and David Elliott), I accepted that if I was going to find whatever I was looking for in life, I would find it riding the breath.

So I studied. And I practiced. And then I began teaching others.

Every time I hold space (guide another person or a group through a session of breath), my eyes are opened to something I hadnt seen before. The breath keeps changing, and I keep changing along with it. Every time I breathe, I learn something new. Whats captured here is what I know of the power of breath so far.

The following pages are organized into two sections: Inhale and Exhale. , on different practices of breathfrom most heady to most physical.

These practices are accessible to all readers: If youre alive, you can breathe. You have to. I encourage you to try all of the schools of breathwork presented here. And, if you find yourself drawn to a particular practice, go for it. You can experiment alone or find a trusted group. In my own practice, I have pulled elements from all seven of the schools of breath outlined in into my daily breathwork practice.

The best way for you to use this book is to let your intuition guide you. Whatever you have to learn, to feel, to understand is already inside you. You dont need a class or permission from a guru to enter. You dont need psychedelic drugs. And you dont need this book. But I really hope you enjoy it anyway.

Inhale

A beloved yoga teacher, Eddie Ellner, often opens his class with the words, You can take a breath.

This is an invitation. And a reminder.

Did you forget you can breathe right now? Did you lose sight of how amazing that is?

You can take a breath is a cue to add consciousness to something youre already doing, to take something automatic and make it intentional.

Youll take millions of breaths in a lifetime. But what about this one?

Will it be nothing more than the breath between the last one and the next one? Or will you empower it to be something more?

If youre feeling anxious, you can take a breath. If youre feeling physically tight or run-down, you can take a breath. If youre feeling disconnected from others, from the experience of your own life, or from your own understanding of God, you can take a breath. In every moment, good or bad, you can always take a breath.

TRY IT NOW.

Inhale deeply.
Exhale. Repeat.
Try it again.

Breathe all the way in. Let it go. Again. Thats how we feed our systems. Thats how we open our hearts, let go of stress and anxiety, and live full, happy lives. We breathe.

Breath is the antidote to our digital lifestyle. Breath connects us to our MAGIC , to our ability to heal ourselves and others, to our untapped creativity. It adds gravity to the words of Carl Sagan, who said, We are made of star-stuff. The breath can take us back to the beginning of time. It can whisper big truths in our ears. It can show us the impossible. It can reconnect us with ancient cycles driven by the force of the sun and the pull of the moon. It can help us heal. It can get us closer to whatever force we believe rules the universe. It can show us unconditional love. And it can remind us how to be human.

You can take a breath. Take the next one like your life depends on it. Because it does.

There is one way
of breathing that is
shameful and constricted.
Then,
theres another way:
a breath of love that
takes you all the way
to infinity.
Rumi

What exactly is breathwork?

Breathwork is open source spirituality. No gurus needed. No thousand-dollar mantras required. No equipment. No structure. No church. Can you breathe? Can you count to four? Youre in! Welcome to the club.

You dont breathe because you want to. You breathe because you have to. Breath isnt a choice. Its a biological imperative. Its the first thing you do when you arrive here on Earth. And its the last thing you do before leaving. When you take that last one, thats it. To the best of our knowledge, thats the end of you.

What exactly is you? If you exist when breathing and you dont when not, whats the difference, if not a combination of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases filtered through the lungs and distributed throughout the body?