Breathing - it’s a lot of work. Inspiration, exhalation, inspiration, exhalation...it just goes on forever. There is no rest. No reprieve. It’s incessant. 

Perhaps to the average healthy person, breathing isn’t thought of as effort, but there are many people to whom this activity is effortful. Asthma, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, bronchitis: all of these conditions make breathing more effortful. Beyond just morbidity though, breathing becomes more effortful as we exercise, have sex, or are anxious. Sometimes, merely noticing our breath can change the way we breathe. 

Then, there’s the whole complicated situation whereby breathing is both an automatic process AND a voluntary process. It’s one of the few activities that will happen if we’re unconscious, but upon which we can intervene at any point if we’re conscious. It’s like a self-driving Tesla, that allows for auto-pilot mode or driver mode at the driver’s whim. By intervening in this automatic process, we can choose to speed it up, or slow it down. We can increase the depth of our breathing, or make it more shallow. We can even choose to hold our breath, and stop the cyclic process altogether...at least for a while. 

There is a backup mechanism in place, one that doesn’t allow us to die through holding our breath. Despite our best efforts, we will either go unconscious, at which point the automatic control will step in and resume breathing, or the diaphragm will be stimulated with such a violent force, that it will overwhelm our conscious suppression, and inspiration will occur. 

In the space between holding our breath and taking a new one, however, there is a beautiful peace. It is only by playing with this “space between breaths” that one begins to understand the invisible stress and effort that breathing continually requires. For as soon as you hold your breath, there is a peaceful stillness, and quietness that is rarely experienced. A mental clarity is gained, if just for a moment, where no motion of the body is detected. It is as if we hit the pause button on the body, and everything just freezes. There is no sound, no motion, no noticeable effort. There is only stillness, calm, peace, and tranquility. Personally, holding my breath provides a meditative space like no other, and as the duration of my breath holding has increased, the more pronounced the meditative effect has become. The continual process of breathing was not perceived as effortful until it ceased. Only then, did I realize the true calming effect of its absence. 

It makes me think of other animals which don’t have such an active respiratory system. Think of a whale, who can hold its breath for between 60-120 minutes. Just imagine, 2 hours without having to breathe? Think of how relaxing a meditation would be without a single movement or sound to disturb you? Or, how about plants which have continual respiration that produces no discernible movement or stress. To know the bliss present in the absence of breathing is a gift in itself. This bliss creates a yearning to hold one’s breath longer still. It makes me understand why yogis and other spiritual men try to slow their breathing rate so much that it appears as though they’ve achieved hibernation. It actually makes me want to be connected to a machine that would infuse oxygen into my blood, completely bypassing the need to move my lungs for a bit, if only to feel that utterly quiet state without movement. 

As odd as this description may seem, I assure you that one must experience it before it is fully understood. The tensions in our body, from tight muscles, to our intestinal muscles contracting and relaxing, are constantly occurring but often overlooked. The body, while it may be full of wonderful feelings, is also full of these hidden tensions. Once we slow down, slow our breathing, and be utterly still, we open a door to a new level of connection with our inner psyche, our subconscious, and the deep oneness within each of us. We enter a realm where we feel almost no connection to our body or the external world, allowing us to slip into the deep ocean of our brain, where intuition, emotions, and experiences are raw and unfiltered. This is a land of dreams, of visions, and of spiritual truths. It is a rare and exotic place, but one worth achieving. It hides, carefully hidden away, just beyond the reaches of the physical world. Take a moment to pause, hold your breath, and crawl beneath the sheets of your fleshly body and constant movement to the stillness of the inner universe. It’s a truly extraordinary place.