‘The treasure has been with you but you were occupied somewhere else: in thoughts, in desires, in a thousand and one things. You were not interested in the only one thing … and that was your own being.’ Osho
In today’s loud and noisy modern world, I am fairly certain that we’ve all been there, and I am positive that children more than ever are victim to the effects of mind body disconnection. Picture it: it’s a busy day and your schedule is jammed packed. You head off bright and early, but there’s still traffic and congestion on the roads. It is, after all, a typical work day. When you arrive at your destination you are accosted by people and have to listen to instructions and directives until it’s time to leave and you have to drive to your first after-hours appointment, followed by rushing home and making dinner, getting the children ready for bed, and preparing for the next day. Sound familiar?
The way that we live is not conducive to a deeper spiritual connection because we are ongoingly drawn away from our conscious breath. Without a connection to our conscious breath, we are simply going through the motions, unconscious of the wonders that exist in the present moment, and the present moment is paramount if we are to feel the magic of being alive: if we are to feel full, calm, connected, conscious.
Modern world, distracted mind
I know that when modern life presses in upon me I can become panicked and breathing to the point that I begin to feel faint. Please note that I do practice breath work, and this can be helpful to relieve symptoms of stress quickly and easily. This, I am sure, is a feeling shared by many who are not aware of just how dangerous these quick, shallow breaths can be. In fact, at my yoga teacher training it was explained to my class of keen yogis-in-training that a yogi measures their life not by their age but by how many breaths they take. It’s simple: the more breaths you take, the sooner you will expire. Over-breathing is serious.
Hyperventilating is caused when our heart rate increases as a response to a stressor and causes us to rapidly over-breathe. It also causes a reduction in blood to the brain, obscuring our ability to make clear and logical decisions. As carbon dioxide levels diminish, the space that typically exists between stimulus and response also begins to disappear. Essentially, when we’re caught up in anxiety or fight and flight – or simply caught up in our heads because of overstimulation – it is impossible to be calm, rational or grounded. It is impossible to find stillness.
In his book Stillness Is The Key, Ryan Holiday writes that: ‘Being present demands all of us. It’s not nothing. It may be the hardest thing in the world.’ (Holiday, p. 25). I would posit it is the hardest thing in the world because it requires us to be out of our mind and drawn into our body. In a world vying for our attention, in a world where external stimulation abounds and the head can easily be turned, to pry our gaze from the outside world and redirect it inwards requires great strength. Presence does demand all of us. It demands our conscious mind.
Why telling someone who is anxious or stuck in their head to ‘breathe’ won’t work
Whenever I’m particularly in my head or when my central nervous system is in the height of dysregulation, my husband will puts his hands on my shoulders and tell me: ‘Just Breathe.’
What I say next is anyone’s guess, and it’s not always pleasant. I always find this advice the worst possible piece of advice to hear, because even though it sounds so simple, as James Nestor writes in Breath, ‘how we breathe really matters’ (p. xxi). The last thing I want to do when I’m already hyperventilating is to be told to breathe more. Especially considering the breath is caught in the chest and not the belly.
Serious, conscious breathing is something that draws us inwards down towards the stomach. To continually breathe is to over-breathe almost like you’re eating air. Trust us Westerners – it’s all just consumption at its finest. We’re actually trying to eat air as energy because our parasympathetic nervous system is in a flurry.
Yes, breathing will relax us, calm our central nervous system and bring us back to centre. Yes, in theory it is all so easy. Wim Hoff’s miracle elixir is nothing more than taking a hundred deep breaths and repeating, particularly when the body is exposed to extreme cold. What Hoff’s method does is bring our conscious attention inwards by shocking our focus away from the head and back into the body.
In reality, however, what we need to do is first unblock the naval chakra – our solar plexus. We need to unblock the belly so that we can actually get our breath back down there.
Unblock the solar plexus, unlock the breath
When we’re caught in our head, our solar plexus – the source of our energy located in our stomach – is thrown out of alignment. The solar plexus is located behind the abdomen and is the seat of our personal power. If we are mindless and distracted, our prana and therefore our personal power is diminished. I personally find that activities which activate the solar plexus are the best activities to guide our breath back to our belly. Activities which are energetic and create fire (i.e. sweat) in the body, enable us to transcend the mind and return once more to a sense of wholeness. Grounding is also an absolute must to give us a sense of renewed strength, so I would encourage meditation before and/ or after any of the below listed suggested activities.
Solar Plexus activities to reconnect with the conscious breath
Intense cardiovascular activities such as:
- swimming
- running or sprinting
- plyometrics
- calisthenics
- HIIT
- boxing
- dancing
- circuit training
- yoga flow
- biking
Lastly, when we need to balance our blocked solar plexus chakra in order for us to reconnect with breath in the belly, there is nothing better than time spent in one’s own company. John Graves wrote that ‘a crowded world thinks that aloneness is always loneliness and to seek it is perversion.’ Many times I would seek solitude on a lunch break in order to reconnect with self. It means not worrying about what might look ‘sad’ (as one colleague once said when he saw me sitting by myself) and doing what is necessary and heartening. Trust me: I never feel lonely when I am alone. I feel deep, blissful connection in a way connecting with colleagues does not afford.
In fact, I definitely believe that one of the obstacles preventing us from accessing the breath is literally the presence of other human beings. Solitude is key to finding our way back to our prana, our life force, which is present in the breath. When we are in our own company, we can begin to relax into a gentle and natural state of being. It simply means that we are giving ourselves the space that we need to ease the belly into a state of rest and digest. Consciously unclenching the stomach and allowing it to be rested may well mean that it is loose and natural, but this will enable you to become fully present and connected. And this, as Osho so rightly states, is the treasure of being that the preoccupied, busy or anxious mind will rob us of possessing.
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