May 2008 Breath & Breathing Report Hello Everyone, I am in Cancun at the moment, relaxing, having fun, enjoying every moment, feeling myself a part of everything. I’ve been remembering one of my early teachers Hans Bruno Geba. He was teaching breathwork in the early 1960’s as a way of developing what he called a “re-creative lifestyle attitude.” He was a delightful man, an extraordinary psychologist, counselor and therapist. His approach to life had a profound effect on me and my practice. And so this month I’d like to share with you some of what he taught—or maybe better to say: “where I’ve gone or what I’ve done with his teachings.” Breathwork as Recreation (Re-Creation) People exist in two dimensions or realms: the natural realm and the symbolic realm. By the natural realm we mean that we are “being lived;” and by the symbolic realm we mean that we are “living life.” Our health, happiness, and our ongoing experience of reality are determined by the relationship between these two dimensions. These two realms can be balanced and harmonized to produce peak performance, to allow optimum health, and to express our ultimate potential. Depending on the harmony or disharmony between the natural and symbolic realms, we either make ourselves well or we make ourselves ill. Most people live predominantly in the symbolic or mental realm. In other words, they “live in their head.” Because of this, many of the body’s natural functions have been taken over by the analytical mind: they are driven and controlled by mental energy that disturbs or disrupts our nature. One of the main benefits of breathwork is that it takes us out of our head and settles us back into our body. The symbolic or analytical mind is a relatively recent development in evolution. It is what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. It is responsible for all the great inventions and all the creative contributions humans have made to the world. But the analytical mind also produces all of our conflict and anxiety; and it can be deadly when we allow it to dominate our lives and subvert natural living. Consider the natural processes of eating food and eliminating waste. Look how important “social etiquette” is in some social circles. Things like how to sit, how to hold a fork, or where to place a napkin, receive more focus and attention than the nutrients that the body actually needs to live. Look at how much social and cultural conditioning—even shame and punishment—go into toilet training. Some people worry so much about these things that they develop lifestyle attitudes of guilt and self-loathing, to the extent that they create headaches, stomach ulcers, and even colon cancer. Notice how much energy goes into fancy packaging and clever advertising, meant to associate junk food with being happy, healthy, and attractive. Instead of eating what is naturally good for us, we consume what our conditioned minds symbolize as valuable. From conception onward, we are clearly being be lived by life, by nature. We are acted upon before we are able to act. Growth and maturing marks a path from impulsive existence and movements to increasingly free choice and self-determined actions. We evolve from automatic blind necessity, to conscious mindful living. Animals don’t have this freedom: they are in every moment controlled completely by their nature. We are a product of nature controlled by it on the one hand, and on the other hand we have the ability to control nature and to consciously change it. Breathwork involves two interrelated events: “being breathed” and “doing the breathing” This is a natural reflection and expression of the two realms: being lived and living life. Before you decide to live your life, you are already being lived; before you decide to breathe, you are already being breathed. Life-force or breath-energy may be the least understood thing on earth. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make use of it for our benefit. Most people don’t know how electricity or cars work, but that doesn’t stop them from switching on a light or driving to the corner store. We don’t have to be enlightened masters to make good use of our life-force energy. We can heal ourselves and each other with it. We can use it to move to the next higher level of being, to end our suffering, and to live in grace. Actions and Attitudes Your lifestyle attitude is the expression of how you live your life. And attitude is a function of action and awareness. Awareness and action is a unit, not a duality. It is not an “either - or” (we live in a universe not a “duoverse”). Attitude not only determines action but it is also a result of it, a constituent of it. It is a determinant as well as a result. Action-awareness or awareness-action is a holistic expression of the mind-body gestalt. Lifestyle attitude is movement, and movement is action-awareness. Action-awareness naturally expresses as ethics and emotion. Early awareness was concentrated on actions focused on survival. Scarcity was the driving force behind human actions. Will there be enough food for today? Will there be enough food for the winter? Will there be enough water to drink? Will there be enough water for the crops? Will there be enough people to do the work? Will there be enough people to fight the enemy? Real and natural scarcity caused a “do or die” attitude. This is the ethics of survival. Today, there are artificial scarcities. These scarcities are symbolic or analytical as opposed to real and natural. Real dangers have been replaced by false or “mind-made” dangers—dangers that exist only in our head. Our thinking causes changes on the cellular level. It causes muscular tension, and affects body chemistry and blood flow patterns, which can lead to disease. Psychological strain causes dramatic hormonal changes, resulting in physiological illness. Thoughts activate emotions, and emotions trigger thoughts: and in a way, our body is caught in the middle. Research in psycho-neuro-immunology proves that free floating thoughts and reactive emotions are a deadly combination. We can poison ourselves with our lifestyle attitudes. We can reduce and even block antibody production and immune system function by how we think and the way we consciously or unconsciously live our lives—by our attitudes. Spiritual Breathing is fun! If you approach breathwork with the same attitude that you approach other healing and growth work, you will miss what it is really about. It’s a paradox, because breathwork is therapeutic work, it is self-improvement work. And yet, it is a break from the work of self-improvement; it is a reprieve from therapy. Breathwork is meant to be fun. It’s fun to be natural, and it’s natural to have fun. But fun is generally associated with frivolous, unethical, time wasting, selfishness. In fact, health and long term survival depends on it. It is fun to feel good and to care about yourself and others. It’s fun to respect nature and the environment. It’s fun to love and be loved. To focus on fun is generally considered to be childish. Growing up, we are taught that only serious adult pursuits are considered mature or necessary. (Call it the “adulteration” process—we adulterate our children!) And so recreation, even when indulged in, is attacked like work; it’s made into serious business. Our vacations are hectic; our free time, our time off, is filled with chores. Even our breathing sessions are stressful! In fact, very serious issues can be resolved with a dose of lightness. Look at the wars we wage on each other, on terrorism, on cancer, on hunger, on poverty, on drugs. Have they really solved anything? They keep us focused in the wrong direction. Even breathwork—which is pure and natural re-creation, is considered by many practitioners and trainers to be “very serious” work that must be regulated and controlled. (I no longer count myself among that ilk.) The Breathworker’s attitude is unique. It can best be described as “sensory/intuitive—action/awareness.” Breathwork creates a natural balance between “being lived” and “living life.” It’s about consciously harmonizing mind and body, creatively blending the natural and symbolic realms. This is a key to thriving in life rather than just surviving it. In breathwork, we practice breath awareness and conscious breathing. Breath awareness is the experience of “being breathed.” Conscious breathing is the practice of “breathing the breath.” We are either doing the breathing or letting the breath breathe us, in the same way that we are either living life or letting life live us. During a breathing session, we generate the re-creative lifestyle attitude, which is process oriented and present moment focused. We are simply breathing and feeling. It is a pure experience. We are aware of our mind and in touch with our body. Breathwork puts us into a creative, resourceful, intuitive state. We are connected, at one with ourselves and our surroundings. We are open to grace, and at ease in the world. We let ourselves be, we allow life come and go. We freely flow our energy and express our true nature. The Cataclysmic Lifestyle Attitude In the same way that a natural attitude and the free and easy flow of breath can lead to the recreative lifestyle, breath-holding and the analytical mind can lead to a “cataclysmic lifestyle.” You probably know the sick feeling of an unhappy love affair. When in that situation, you feel lost, disconnected from yourself and from life around you. This is suffering. But at some point you regain your balance, you come to your senses. Your mind clears and you are able to let go. Your attitude changes and you feel alive again. You are free. This is a relatively simple and harmless example of temporarily going through the painful cataclysmic attitude. But the consequences of constantly living a cataclysmic lifestyle attitude are far more severe. On a personal level, it can lead to an avoidance of love, life-long dread, free-floating anxiety or rage, mental illness, catatonic stupor, or even suicide. On a social or cultural level, it can lead to senseless wars, genocide, and holocausts. Just as individuals can loose touch with nature and reality, organizations, institutions, and entire nations can too. Just as you can poison your bloodstream, burn a hole in your stomach, or destroy your immune system… societies controlled by the cataclysmic lifestyle attitude can destroy plants and animals; burn holes in the environment, pollute oceans and the air, and destroy the planet. We seem to have passed thru the nuclear threshold; the world has survived the threat of nuclear annihilation. But today, we are in the grip of what is called the “terrorist” threat. Our governments foster cataclysmic attitudes by keeping people and institutions focused on crisis emotions, on survival motivation, on alienation, fear and scarcity. The cataclysmic lifestyle attitude is dominated by fear and dis-ease. In this state, the head not only dominates the body, it is disconnected from it. We are not “together,” not united. We are not functioning as a harmonious unit. Notice how our government leaders are so disconnected from the “man on the street.” Notice the constant conflict between segments of the population: the liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, etc. Notice the way that media pundits, radio personalities and talk show hosts fuel this divisiveness. When you are split, you are not inspired; you are not clear or focused. There is a stressful attempt to control yourself and everything around you. You tend to dwell on the details of a problem instead of dismissing them; your body is tight and tense, restless or in pain, and your mind is scattered or caught in dull, useless repetition. All of the environmental problems and polarized political and social conflicts grow out of an internal split within the individual mind and body. By dealing with ourselves, others, and events as if they are isolated entities instead of parts of a continuum we create and maintain the very problems that we seek to solve. Only inner peace can lead to world peace, yet none of our “leaders” and no one in the media seems to have it. We cannot change ourselves when we are busy defending ourselves. Even if we wake up and realize that we have made a mistake, that we are on the wrong path, that we are acting out a dysfunctional pattern… we cannot seem to stop ourselves. We have to finish our act! Other people may recognize our error, but instead of changing course, we stay the course. We put our life energy into defending ourselves, our actions and our position. It seems that once the chemicals in our system and the molecules of our emotions have been activated, we have no choice but to wait for them to run their course; we need time to neutralize ourselves before we can wake up, move forward, and be fully human again. Breathwork is the perfect thing to practice in order to allow this “coming home.” It’s the perfect thing to do when analytic or catastrophic attitudes drive us. Breathwork gives us a way to settle back into our natural being—into a re-creative lifestyle attitude. Breathwork was originally called rebirthing, because people literally felt “born again” into a new and naturally vital body. But in many cases, breathwork has been taken over by the analytical mind. It has become just one more thing “to do” to ourselves and each other, rather than a unique and creative way of “being” in harmony with nature and life. Personal Invitation As many of you know, I am part of a small but growing intentional community called Baja Bio Sana. Since November, I have been living in nature and learning to become a farmer, a gardener. Everyday, I have been surrounded by pure nature, pristine beauty and abundant life. Everywhere I look there is life. Today my heart goes out to those who are forced to live in stuffy apartments and polluted cities—the only life they see is a dusty pigeon and a wilting plant on their window sill, or a lonely guppy in a murky fishbowl. Yet, the life within us is always full and rich. And anyone can plant a seed and increase the life in the world. Our little piece of paradise is only twenty acres—too small to fit everyone I love at once, and too small to invite the whole world to visit and enjoy. But maybe we can serve as a tiny example. Maybe we can inspire others to do what we are doing. And in turn they will inspire others. And in this way the whole planet can be transformed. We are 8 founders to date, and we plan to complete the circle at 13. We each contribute $15,000 usd, which gives us a home forever. Any friend of the earth and lover of life is welcome to join us. Among the five remaining founders, we’d like to attract one organic farmer and one internet/computer wizard. Nature is our best teacher and it is the ultimate healer. It has become quite obvious to me that the same life force that permeates and animates earth, air, water, and fire, permeates and animates every plant and animal, and us too. It is up to us to develop a conscious relationship with this life force. And that is precisely what breathwork is about. My friend Jenya, a zen monk, ornithologist, and one of the first Russian breathworkers, recently reminded me of a profound truth: “Everything in nature—every shape, every sound, every movement, every color, every texture, every fragrance—has healing power.” It is up to us to breathe in this healing power, to trust it, to relax into it, to become one with it! I see our little Garden of Eden as a place where people are able to regain their original purity, innocence, and power. When we quiet our mind and observe nature, when we listen to it and feel it, when we allow ourselves to be absorbed into it, we automatically develop lifestyle attitudes in harmony with the “Source of Life." If you would like to participate in this community, if you are ready to live your dream, ready to make it a reality, I invite you to contact me. Travel and Training Schedule My travel schedule is coming together. At the moment it looks like this: July 29 to August 6: Issyk-kul Lake, Kyrgystan August 7 to August 11: Alma Ata, Kazakhstan August 14 to August 18: The Hill that Breathes, Italy August 20 to September 7: Russia and Bashkortostan September 9 to September 24: Vilnius, Lithuania September 25 to October 5: Kharkov, Ukraine November 1 to May 1: the first “Baja Bio Sana Life Skills/Healing Arts Training.” Teachers and healers, students and practitioner from all over the world will be taking part. We will also present the first “Breath Mastery Program,” exploring and synthesizing more than ten styles, schools, and approaches to Breathwork. Whether you are a seasoned practitioner, a recent graduate, or a new student, you are invited to take part. With love, Dan Baja Bio Sana Caja Apartado #1 Santiago, BCS Mexico 23500 Tel: 52 1 624 166 0883