• experience the innate intelligence of your body, mind, heart, and soul

• regulate the nervous system + restore your natural breath rhythm to optimal balance and harmony

• clear subconscious information, past trauma, and stagnant energy from the body/mind

• access the frequency of love and explore higher states of consciousness

• tap into heart/brain coherence

• dissipate overwhelm and find mental clarity
• develop spiritual connections
• deepen felt-sense embodiment
• cultivate sensitivity and extrasensory perceptions
• release toxins, trapped emotion, and stagnant energy and feel more spacious in body, mind, heart, and soul
• rewire, realign, and repattern unbeneficial habits,  tendencies, and programs
• cultivate a deeper sense of purpose + meaning in life
• empower yourself to regulate, heal, and transmute unbeneficial energy in your system: your breath is your best integrative medicine
• realize the interconnection between you and all things

Universal Components

While many conscious connected breathing techniques have unique features and spiritual frameworks, the majority include five primary components:

1. Conscious connected breathing: no pauses between the inhale and the exhale.
2. Diaphragmatic breathing: active inhale into the belly with relaxed expansion of the chest.
3. Relaxed exhale: breathing out is a passive movement (letting go like a sigh of relief).
4. Breathing channel: breathe in and out through the same channel (nose as practice, mouth as medicine).
5. Stay present and conscious with your breath.

Your inhalations are relatively full and long. Allow the belly to be soft so that the diaphragm has space to move. This movement will cause the organs of the stomach to descend to the belly. Invite the inhale to fill the wide space of the lungs- this moves into the whole ribcage, front, sides, and back. Think about filling your inhale into the low back ribs. 

Your exhalations are are soft and relaxed, the belly drops back to the spine, and are slightly shorter. 

The inhale picks up *just before* the exhale completes. 

The breath loop is continuous and circular in nature- there are no gaps between the inhale and exhale (ideally). This means, there are no breath holds at any point in this breath circuit. When your lungs are almost full, you turn the breath around and begin your exhale... And as the lungs are almost empty, you turn your breath around and begin to fill with your inhale. 

While this is a natural breath, it is an active breath. It is moving, alive, vibrant. So, the speed is moving slightly faster than your regular breathing patterns. Relax and try not to strain. Try to make this as easy and effortless as possible... EVEN though, yes- it is still effortful! Eventually, if you are lucky, you will experience the breath breathing you! (MAGIC BLISS!)

My best advice is to not get too mental about this process. You can't do it wrong... So, just breathe. Allow the breath to be your guide, your healer, and your teacher. 

Open mouth OR closed mouth, if you prefer. Check your why + resistance.

Inhale: more active, alive, vibrant, and full

Exhale: like a sigh of relief, soft, relaxed, like letting go

Continuous + connected: In and out, moving one into the other, without pause. Focus on creating the circular rhythm- it moves a little bit faster than your regular breath. Rhythm and flow is the key. Keep it moving as best you can.

Witness: instead of steering the breath to move to certain areas, witness where it moves and where it doesn’t move. Your awareness is all that's needed. 

Intelligence: while we activate the circular loop and impose our effort to create this breath in the beginning, we can also trust that our breath and our body will move us in the perfect flow. Your breath knows where to go. Your breath is complete: the guide, the healer, and the teacher. 

Allow: release controls, release forcing, release mental ideology. Your body is insanely wise. Allow it to move as it needs, release as it needs, express as it needs. Expectations are the quickest way to perceived failure… Give yourself the space to open naturally.

Waves: typically, the breath begins in a stronger, more intentional way. We move it to “stoke the fire.” Eventually, the body takes over and moves it in perfection. It is expected and normal for your breath (and your visceral/ felt-sense experience) to move in waves. The breath may soften, stillness may move in, even entering a complete space of void… And, we move in trust- This is perfect, this is the rhythm of your body and breath moving in waves. Ebb and flow. In and out. Fast and slow. Soft and strong. Become the witness and watch your system wave, just like nature. 

Breath Tips: 

• In the midst of anything that arises for you- physically, mentally, or emotionally, do your best to relax and stay present with your breath- "in the breath, we trust"
• Practice being the witness of anything that arises, renegotiating your relationship and response to your experience with full acceptance and presence
• If sensations, thoughts, or emotions intensify to the point of being distracting from simply relaxing and breathing circularly, then use some toning or movement to free up space and integrate the blocked or excess energy
• Imagine your breath as a wave- moving in and out effortlessly. Watch it with curiosity and be with everything that arises