The science of the process

A living, circular breath without forced pauses, with a full, deep inhalation and a soft, relaxed exhalation, like the breath of a brisk walk.

The breath starts from the belly and then rises into the chest, while staying connected to the belly, where life began through the navel. A long, deep inhalation and a short, relaxed exhalation help to avoid respiratory alkalosis, staying closer to the most physiological and spontaneous breath.

The diaphragm – Illustration: Scientific Animations, CC BY-SA 4.0

This way of breathing brings awareness to limiting breathing patterns, often linked to past experiences or emotional blocks. Through the breath and by listening to the body, these patterns can transform, allowing held emotions to be released and greater inner freedom.

Each of us can notice how emotions directly affect the breath: when we are afraid it tends to freeze, when we are angry it speeds up, and it becomes slower and deeper with those who make us feel safe.

The breath is intimately connected to the way we live, relate to ourselves and to others, and how we feel and express ourselves every day. This also happens thanks to the close connection between the respiratory centres and the brain areas involved in emotional memory.

Our brain works through electrical impulses – frequencies – that travel through the limbic system, the vagus nerve and the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

As the breath is activated, old memories can surface naturally, to be recognised, processed and integrated with new awareness. This process supports the authentic expression of our personality, freer, more present and less conditioned by past experiences.

Deep tensions stored emotionally in the body and in the respiratory system create bodily resistances linked to caged emotions and feelings. The breath lets anxieties and fears stored over a lifetime come to the surface, supporting the integration of traumatic experiences: birth, childhood, adolescence, grief and trauma of many kinds.

We are energy in constant motion, frequencies and vibrations. Emotion is energy in motion, and repressing it can disturb the energy flow, leading to imbalances such as stress and anxiety. Every cell, tissue and organ emits specific frequencies.

Through breathing, Spirit – or Prana, the life force – merges with matter. The breath is the most important and dynamic tool we can use to master our consciousness.