We are breathing beings. Every moment of our lives, from our birth to our death, our life is defined by our breathing. When our breath stops, our life stops with it. Our breath is, however, much more than a physiological function. How we breathe affects what we feel, how we relate, how we live, how we think. It affects our physical and mental health, our personal and spiritual development, our state of consciousness. We are our breath, and our breath is the language that tells us how we are. Breath language also tells us what we can become. Our habitual breathing rhythms regulate our emotions and state of consciousness. When we change our breathing rhythm we alter our state of consciousness.
Breath language speaks about life and death. When we take our first breath, we inform the world that we are alive, and when we finally stop drawing breath, we inform the world of our departure.
Breath language is a psychological language. All languages are rich in expressions that relate our breath to our inner state of being. In English, we wait with bated breath. We catch our breath in fear or anticipation; we hold our breath during moments of tension, pressure, strain, anxiety, danger, and excitement; and when we are at ease again, we breathe freely. We breathe freely also in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom.
Breath language is especially rich in communicating emotion. Strong emotions like crying, anger, fear, sorrow, and pleasure usually involve increased breathing, while repressing emotions means reducing breathing.
Breath language is a body language. The noises our breath makes such as puffing, panting, yawning, gasps, snorts, sighs, coughing, choking, and suffocating are all part of its vocabulary as is the length of the breath and the part of the body it takes place in. When we are relaxed, we breathe deeply and slowly into our belly. Stress moves our breath from our belly to our chest.
Our breath can be a language of illness. When we are ill, our breathing is affected; when our breathing is inadequate, our health is affected. Hyperventilation is an indication of stress and anxiety. Hesitation and mental conflict can trigger asthma attacks.
In health and illness, in psychotherapy and in personal and spiritual development, breath can be used as a means of diagnosis, with its own descriptive and prescriptive vocabulary.
Breath language speaks of the Soul. Breath is life. In many languages, the words for “breath” and “spirit” or “soul”' are the same. The symbolism of breath as the life principle is universal.
If dreams are the royal road to the unconscious, breath is the royal expressway. To participate in Breathwork, as client or professional, means learning breath language.
Conscious Breathing: How Shamanic Breathing Can Transform Your Life, pp. 3-4, (North Atlantic Books, Berkeley , CA , 2004)