Most People Think They’re Breathing Fine Until They Actually Pay Attention
I wasn’t looking to adopt another breathing fad when I stumbled upon rebirthing breathwork Leonard ORR. I have tried breathing apps, yoga, and a number of other practices that promised to help me feel better. I would occasionally find myself in a nice zone for an afternoon or two before returning to my stressful routine. What Dan Brule’s modality taught me, however, was something else entirely: a revelation about the breath I was taking long before rebirthing breathwork became a thing. What I learned from Dan Brule has remained with me since day one, and I know it will do the same for those who begin their journey with rebirth breathing.
I Wasn’t Expecting to Have More Awareness Than Any Breathing Technique Could Manage
The main discovery, as it were, was that the breath you have been taking has been affecting all of your life decisions subconsciously. Dan Brule has spent the last five decades teaching others this same lesson, minus the new-age speak. Your breath is a physiological function that makes up a large part of your being: that’s all there is to it, and that’s all there should be to it.
It’s only when you start to gain awareness that you can control what happens with your breathing and, by extension, your consciousness. The key realisation was that my breathing in certain situations wasn’t ‘wrong’, per se, but it wasn’t optimal either, and most of the time, I didn’t even notice that it wasn’t until I was already there. When I was stressed before tough meetings, my shoulders tensed up, my breath short, shallow, and my exhalation was far too short.
Shallow Breathing Comes From Living Your Life – It Isn’t a Lifestyle Choice!
You could say it’s a coping mechanism that people develop on a whim, but it’s usually over months and years of living a busy life. You subconsciously short your exhalation, and that raises your nervous system’s activation: it becomes your go-to state. Having said that, I have never felt better after a long, slow-out breath than I did when I had one.
I Found a Better Teacher – Literally.
That is also something worth mentioning about Dan Brule’s rebirthing method: he learned it from the first rebirthing practitioner, Leonard Orr, starting in 1976. In the five decades since, Dan Brule has spent every waking hour passing that knowledge on to tens of thousands of people across dozens of countries. He has taught Navy SEALs, world-class sportspeople, CEOs, trauma survivors, and everyday people whose names he will never utter. The fact that Tony Robbins and retired Navy SEAL Mark Divine can attest to its power makes me trust it even more, as both are serial self-marketers for their own methodologies that have been tested under similar conditions.
There Was One Question That Has Been Bugging Me for Some Time Before I Signed Up
How Many Times Have You Tried to Improve Your Focus, Your Patience, Your Mindset, Your Stoicism – Only To Realise That It All Came Down to Something As Simple As Your Breathing?
Something clicked for me too: I knew that all this time that I spent breathing properly could have been invested elsewhere if only I had learned rebirth breathing when my breathing was better in the first place.
When You Have Breath Awareness, You Always Have Options!
When I was halfway through my training, I gained a new appreciation for the historical context in which rebirth breathing practices were developed because it makes all the difference. Rebirthing breathwork (which is also called connected breathing) is different from box breathing, performance breathing, and other similar techniques that have been popularised in recent years, particularly by figures such as Wim Hof. Knowing why these practices are different makes you a better practitioner of any of them because it makes you aware of what these practices are designed to accomplish.
The Training Goes Far Beyond a Weekend Experience
Most of the insights I have mentioned would require more than just a weekend to absorb. The Breathmastery Practitioner Certification Program is conducted over an entire year via online learning, webinars, coaching sessions, practice, and in-person training. It requires a serious time commitment on the student’s part, which may not be ideal for some. Those who are looking for something less intensive could start with the O2 Fundamentals course, offered by O2 Collective, or the Legacy Collection – or even sign up for the free 21-Day Breathing Training. The upcoming training in India is another excellent opportunity to do more than sit in a class and watch a series of videos; it is an immersive experience that will keep you on your toes in more ways than one.
You Stop Chasing Calm Because It Starts Finding You
A few weeks into my training, I noticed that stressful events weren’t affecting my breathing as much as they used to, at least not immediately. When I was anxious or angry, my breath was still tense, but it didn’t leave me feeling like my chest was literally tying itself into knots. Slow breathing and long exhalation have been proven to have specific physiological effects on the human body. Experiencing those effects, however, is a matter of actually going through the process and doing the breathing required (which, conveniently enough, isn’t that difficult once you get the hang of it). You won’t stop doing that when you begin to notice how easy it is – and that’s the point. You can take it anywhere, without fail, because it never asks for your permission when it comes.
Learning Online Doesn’t Mean Learning Alone
You Can Learn Breath Work from Anyone, But Learning from Someone Else Means You Can’t Be Taught by Yourself!
By the second year of my Practitioner training, I began to understand why breathwork certification online could be such a valuable tool for those who want to learn breathing techniques from a qualified instructor.
You see, you can have all the breathing practices in the world on a whim, but without the mentorship, you will never be able to get the most out of them – unless you are willing to invest a lot of time into it. You can feel confident, self-sufficient, and even superior about it afterwards, but you will always know that the absence of a physical presence has taken a part of your training away from you no matter how much you try to deny it.
The Best Teachers Learn to Make Themselves Unnecessary!
That, perhaps, is the lesson of Breath Mastery: Dan Brule makes it clear that his job is to give you the tools to experience breathing mastery, not to tell you what, when, and how to breathe himself. His rebirth breathing teachings give you the knowledge of conscious breathing from a solid physiological and practical perspective. If you are ready to do more than simply breathe better in stressful situations and want to start building your breathing practice with solid foundations, I encourage you to visit BreathMastery. The website offers a free 21-Day Breathing Training, you can start with the O2 Fundamentals course or even the one-year Practitioner Certification Program. It’s a small step, and you will find that a year from now, it changed everything for the better!
