I just discovered a blog post by master breath teacher Dennis Lewis from 2012 called “Don’t bully your breath”. What a great way of naming what we do when we unnecessarily employ the breath with breathing techniques. In attitude, it really is no different from domineering and messing someone around in the playground. Except, we’re doing it to ourselves.
Breathing techniques were developed by people who led exceptionally disciplined lives and practiced mental, emotional and physical strength, flexibility and hygiene on a moment-to-moment basis.
Is this you? Do you know anyone like this? Answering this question for myself, this is definitely not me, I love TV series too much and going out for a glass of wine. And I don‘t know anyone else like this either. Maybe you do…
For these spiritual ascetics, a deep experiential knowledge of the rhythms of nature, the body and the breath were prerequisite for experimenting with breathing and developing their techniques. This is not the given context today, by any stretch of the imagination.
In his blog post, Dennis Lewis reminds us that: „When you work with your breathing, you are, whether you realize it or not, working with the whole of yourself. Your breath touches and connects every aspect of your being, and a change in one area can bring unforeseen, often undesirable, consequences in others. My advice, therefore, is not to bully your breath with your ego and its manipulative techniques, which so many people do, but to approach your breath with respect, wonder, and gentle awareness.“
Source: https://dennislewisblog.com/2012/08/13/when-you-work-w/