Living is as easy as breathing… as easy as choosing your breath in each and every moment. As easy as choosing to make that next breath gentle.
Our breath is our life, without it we die.
Yet we take our breath for granted; we breathe in and out mechanically without thought or awareness of our breath or how we are breathing.
How We Breathe
As a dentist I am very aware of how people breathe. I observe how my patients are breathing as it gives me clues to their health, how they are feeling or how they are coping with their treatment. From hyperventilating to breath holding, shallow breathing to deep sucking in lungfuls of oxygen, nose breathing, mouth breathing, wheezing, gasping… there are so many different ways of breathing and I feel I have seen them all.
We breathe on average 1700 to 2100 times a day. That is a lot of in and out, air passing through our nose and lungs and into our circulation. A lot of breathing muscles and chest walls expanding and contracting, rising and falling.
Studies show that the way we breathe affects our nervous system, hormone production, fight-flight response, stress levels, heart beat and rate, blood pressure and digestion.
There are times when situations or our emotions alter how we breathe, just like when we feel stressed or anxious, angry, upset, frustrated, afraid, excited, happy, calm, loved or when we sleep. In these circumstances what is happening to us is dictating how we react, our breathing, and ultimately our physiology and biochemistry.
Choosing How To Breathe
But what if we could choose to breathe in a way that would allow us to feel in control of life rather than life controlling us?
What if we could choose a breath that would allow us to connect to who we are, breathe for ourselves and remain unaffected by the world and what is happening outside of us?
What if we could use our breath to become aware of how we are feeling, what is happening in our body and to become more in touch with ourselves?
Well guess what? – we can, it is as easy as breathing… well, as easy as choosing how to breathe.
As easy as choosing to breathe for yourself. As easy as breathing gently in and out through your nose. As easy as watching and observing your breath as often as you can during the day. And as easy as stopping and bringing yourself back to that gentle breath.
Breathing Gently
Breathing gently in and out through the nose, as taught in the Gentle Breath Meditation™ by Serge Benhayon, has allowed thousands to be more at one with themselves, to be in charge of their breath and how their body feels.
For me it has allowed me to feel settled inside and at ease. I feel less rushed, pressured and dictated to by external events and other people. I feel healthier, less emotional, less stressed and as if I have more time in my day. I also notice, especially at work, how maintaining my rhythm and gentleness of breathing allows my patients and team members to also be more at ease. (Which as you can imagine is a blessing in a highly charged environment like the dental office!).
By taking that choice to breathe gently to a deeper place and choosing to breathe fully for me I have found that I know exactly what is needed and when; from knowing what to do or say to making big decisions and simple choices like when to rest, eat, exercise, work or sleep.
Breathing gently allows me to connect to me and from that connection make a choice rather than reacting to events, people or emotions. Breathing gently puts me back in charge of me.
When I breathe fully for me I become exquisitely aware of how I am feeling or reacting and also of how others feel, what they are projecting or needing. My breathing becomes like a fine tuning system allowing my sixth sense of feeling to kick in at a higher level. Living becomes clearer, richer and simpler. I feel like I am truly living, not just existing and being dictated to by life.
Living is as easy as breathing… as easy as choosing your breath in each and every moment. As easy as choosing to make that next breath gentle.
The Gentle Breath Meditation™, as taught by Serge Benhayon of Universal Medicine – a meditation for health and vitality.
by Dr Rachel Hall, Holistic Dentist, Brisbane
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
It’s great to read blogs again and this one is vital as without breathing the body will die. But what I loved is knowing that when we are off, then we have breathed someone or something else’s breath and that can make you loose yourself.
The Gentle Breath Meditation is a simple and powerful resource to have. “Breathing gently puts me back in charge of me”, which is better than something else being charged in me.
‘But what if we could choose to breathe in a way that would allow us to feel in control of life rather life controlling us?’, is a powerful statement. No wonder our lives are in a disarray, when we allow life’s situations to control us. Then we never feel that eternal settlement in our bodies.
If we are constantly recycling life’s breath, then how does it affect the rest of the planet? And its ozone? Hypothetically, is it all about the gases produced by industries, or do we play a part in it too? Worth thinking about…
I’d rather ‘breathing gently puts me back in charge of me’, than be controlled by something else, that serves in uselessness.
Without having experienced this myself, I would be saying this is a rather bold statement: “Breathing gently allows me to connect to me and from that connection make a choice rather than reacting to events, people or emotions. Breathing gently puts me back in charge of me.”
I suppose if we think about toxic fumes affecting us and our bodies and we are required to wear masks. The breath we breathe of someone or something else is no different. Wear your own mask…
Funny that how we breath so much, in fact all of the time, and how it is such an integral part of our day and core to our survival, and yet we can be so oblivious to our breath and take it for granted! And then when we bring back our attention to the breath and learn to breath with awareness and gentleness, it is amazing how much this supports the whole body and being in its natural expression of gentleness.
I agree we become oblivious of our breathing till something blocks it. Why take care then? Taking care of your breath is part of our self-caring to the core..
Thank you Rachel for the simplicity and above all the practicality of the gentle breath and how powerful it is in supporting us to be more present with the body and all its communications.
Rachel I also noticed this line “My breathing becomes like a fine tuning system allowing my sixth sense of feeling to kick in at a higher level.” I hadn’t actually considered the link of breathing me and accessing my clairsentience but it makes perfect (6th) sense. 🙂
“Breathing gently allows me to connect to me and from that connection make a choice rather than reacting to events, people or emotions.”. I have seen myself as a reactive person, but as this line shares, who we are is not in those reactions, in our essence we simply are able to be and respond.
This makes sense, choose the quality of our breath, and the quality of our life, ‘But what if we could choose to breathe in a way that would allow us to feel in control of life rather than life controlling us?’
There are definitely many times I take my breath and the way I breath forgranted! In practising the Gentle Breath Meditation the other day it was so easy to see how I had been caught up in my thoughts and not allowing myself to just be with my body. Something so simple as easy as the breath and breathing is actually the foundation and key to our true well-being.
I started to breath gently while reading this and it was really lovely feel that gentleness expanding throughout my body. It is so easy to choose. Yet, we are so good at coming up with excuse and justification for not making that choice. It’s like, we are letting ourselves be more easily dictated by something that does not want us to feel that exquisite sweetness that we can get used to and possibly claim as our natural way of being.
You say it all Rachel: ‘Our breath is our life, without it we die.’ So what is the quality of breath we breathe, what is the quality of energy that we will to animate us? What is such a gift is that our bodies always will record and reflect what this quality is, with the quality of our breath and the choices we make as such the quality of life we are living. We only need to be willing to pay attention and be honest. For when we surrender to the quality of love we are within, our breath reflects the quality of stillness, of who we are and we are moved naturally governed by this quality to simply be ourselves.
Fascinating to read more about breathing and things I was not aware of like ‘We breathe on average 1700 to 2100 times a day.’ and the importance of our breath and how we breathe and the fact that we do have a choice in how we breath. Something that I was not taught until I knew Universal Medicine, yet this is something we should be taught from birth. The Gentle Breath Meditation is super supportive.
The quality of our breath determines everything, the Gentle Breath Meditation has brought a lot of awareness and understanding to me about my breath and how this affects my movements.
Only when you are in charge of your own breathing you can front-foot life. In that sense, we have to appreciate the Gentle Breath Meditation. It brings us back (back-footing tool). By doing so, we get acquainted of how does it feel to be in charge and what does it take to not lose it. This is crucial in case we wish to go there.
This is the way to be, so we are not affected by life, so we are in charge of our life, ‘What if we could choose a breath that would allow us to connect to who we are, breathe for ourselves and remain unaffected by the world and what is happening outside of us?’
The benefits of breathing our own breath are massive; how wonderful if this practice was taught to all school children early on in their lives, for them to use daily as they go through life; ‘it has allowed me to feel Settled inside and at ease. I feel less rushed, pressured and dictated to by external events and other people. I feel healthier, less emotional, less stressed and as if I have more time in my day.’
Yes, to being in charge of your breath; this is a must, for all people, ‘What if we could choose a breath that would allow us to connect to who we are, breathe for ourselves and remain unaffected by the world and what is happening outside of us?’
Thanks Rachel for reminding me of the power of connecting to my breath more often.This morning I was feeling out of sorts, tried everything to connect to me, and then I remembered: My breath! I focussed on breathing gently, and I connected back to feeling beautiful as a basis, and became more aware what was going on.
“My breathing becomes like a fine tuning system” Amazing blog Rachel – you make me want to totally investigate the science of breathing and how my breathing can fine tune my body!
‘Living is as easy as breathing… as easy as choosing your breath in each and every moment.’ Spot on Rachel, and the Gentle Breath Meditation has been key in supporting me to choose and live my own breath.
So true – living is as easy as breathing. There were times in my life where I had never even considered a concept of “choosing to breathe my own breath”, and likewise, I was living a life of reaction, constantly feeling the tension of having to protect myself. Knowing there is a choice to be made, and making a conscious choice gives us a life changing perspective.
If studies show us that our quality of breathing affects ‘our nervous system, hormone production, fight-flight response, stress levels, heart beat and rate, blood pressure and digestion’ then it makes sense with our escalating rates of disease and illness that simple breathing exercises such as the Gentle Breath Meditation and Esoteric Connective tissue exercises are taught far and wide to support and promote our health and well-being.
“When I breathe fully for me I become exquisitely aware of how I am feeling” Learning and experiencing the Gentle Breath Meditation should be as much a part of education as learning to read.
Yes, if everyone was taught and practised the Gentle Breath Meditation, the world would be a more loving place to live in, ‘Breathing gently allows me to connect to me and from that connection make a choice rather than reacting to events, people or emotions. Breathing gently puts me back in charge of me.’
Being aware of my breath has really helped me to get an understanding of how I’m feeling. Whether I’m holding on to something, feeling nervous or anxious or even tired. It’s a wonderful tool to bring awareness back to your body.
I totally agree Elodie – when we are willing to be aware of how we are breathing it is a gift to know where we are really at anytime, anywhere.
There are a lot of things to choose in life, but there is not much awareness around the breath and choosing to breathe your own breathe, which truly supports you in all your decisions and knowing what is needed in any given situation.
‘I have found that I know exactly what is needed and when; from knowing what to do or say to making big decisions and simple choices like when to rest, eat, exercise, work or sleep’. This is how living has become easy for me – having always created struggle… which started with self-care, truly nourishing and honouring my body to being very gentle in my movements.
The way we breathe offers us a great reflection to the way we are choosing to live. In bringing awareness to our breath we bring awareness to how we are living and if the we are in fact breathing the life we want and deserve to live – one that is connection to and enriched with who we are.
“Living becomes clearer, richer and simpler. I feel like I am truly living, not just existing and being dictated to by life.” Who would have thought that breathing made life simpler! We all know it is needed to keep us alive but how often do we truly appreciate the input we have which determines the output?
The power of the gentle breath and its ripple effect in our every day lives….Lucy you have nailed it as we can take our breath so much for granted and let alone the gentle breath and all the transformation that it offers.
It is so true how much we take our breath for granted…and yet without it we don’t exist. When I make the time to observe my breath flowing in and out it is so very stilling and there is no past or future only the present or the moment with the breath.
I agree and this for me reflects just how much we take for granted that every moment we are offered the opportunity to evolve, and that we are supported to no end to live in connection to all that we are through our every breath.
I love the title of this blog, because life can be so simple when we are connected to our bodies, when we are fully present in every moment, with our breath and all our movements gentle.
‘Breathing gently puts me back in charge of me’ – sums the whole blog up.
It is so true, when my boat has been rocked and I am all upset and emotional, my breathe rapidly changes and in a one extreme occasion, I was panting and struggling to breathe in, and only when I calmed down did my breathe slow down and I could breathe normal again.
I feel my breath more gentle after reading your blog Rachael, and have already more awareness of how I am breathing, it being my choice to make the next breath gentle….
Such a great question – what if we choose, and don’t let the world dictate to us?
It makes sense that, when we put more attention to something that we do in every moment in our life, it has a big impact on the quality of how we are living.
How deeply empowering it is to breathe our own breath which flows on to our every movement in life and the quality of life we will go on to live. The alternative is to live someone else’s rhythm and be at the mercy of whatever comes out way.
This is so so true, “we breathe in and out mechanically without thought or awareness of our breath or how we are breathing.” We take it for granted and only when things are interrupted or inconvenienced do we stop and realise we have taken them for granted and then wonder why. I am returning to appreciating what is around me for no reason, just for the mere fact it’s there. Appreciation is a key for me to unlocking more of the world to see.
Love this comment Ray – we do so much on autopilot… ‘unconsciously’ and yet if we stop for a moment and take a good look at it with fresh eyes, life is quite simply amazing. All of it, to the detail. All we need to do is look up and remain present.
So true and this is how to live life truly, by always giving everything fresh eyes and a fresh start. No matter what has happened before or how you have read a situation the next time you see it bring all of you to it. In other words don’t walk into something just because it’s always been there, give everything a fresh discern and from there you are always truly living.