In one of the talks at the breathwork summit 2022 , neuropsychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel spoke about the brain being „an anticipation machine”. “It’s always trying to detect patterns so that it can get ready for what comes next. Over time the brain learns, that in and out breath are coupled. When something happens in the brain, it makes a representation of what will happen in the future.“ So that through the pattern recognition system of the brain „the in-breath has an anticipation of the out-breath and the out-breath has an anticipation of in-breath.“ He compared it to when you perform the motor action of reaching for a brush, your brain anticipates that you’re going to brush your hair. „The brain can’t help itself but to prepare itself for what happens next.“ When we practice breath awareness, when we bring our attention to the sensation of being in the present moment, „your action reaffirms that what your brain anticipated is happening and you create coherence in the perceptional system of the brain.“
I really appreciated how Dr. Siegel explained the difference between breath awareness and breath observation in scientific terms. As different networks in the brain are used for awareness or sensation and observation, the network in the brain used for observation says „I’m Dan and I’m observing that I’m breathing. It activates areas of the brain that deal with what happened in past, present and future. It pulls us in a different frame of mind, one that is connected to a default network whereas when we activate the sensory channel we inhibit the narrative mind.“
At the end of the talk, Dr. Siegel masterfully expressed the connection between breathing, sensation and belonging which I’ve been trying to learn and teach over the past ten years with my own work Natural Breathing. “The breath is among a few of the physiological systems that are voluntary and involuntary simultaneously. Breath awareness can create a coherent flow, a coherence that does not only affect breathing, it rounds your bodily experience in the larger world. Sensing the breath in the body also creates a larger sense of identity and belonging to the world.“