But how does that work? A report from someone who learnt to breathe.
This article first appeared in German at Freischwebende Intelligenz. You can find all the articles by Free-floating Intelligence in English here – subscribe now, to get the articles by e-mail! This article has been written with the Pareto client.
Get the latest articles from Free-floating intelligence by subscribing to the newsletter.
Get the latest Pareto articles via Telegram.
In ancient times, it was called ataraxia — the peace of mind that a person should strive for. A state beyond busyness, otium instead of negotium. In Romanic countries, something of this has survived to this day: in Italy’s Ferragosto, when the country collectively comes to a standstill, or in France, where life in Paris is basically suspended for the entire month of August.
But the world never stands still, not for publicists who feel the pulse of time, and not for us. Peace is looked for, but rarely found. Today, people like to dress it up in the term mindfulness. But this mindfulness often remains superficial. Paradoxically, the search for peace then leads to even more unrest. The key lies not in more, but in less: in letting go. Transformation is not a constant activity, but happens when the right things come together at the right time. Something is always happening, even when it seems like nothing is happening. Peace, it seems, is the ability or tolerance to endure silence and emptiness.
The battle for attention
The most valuable resource of our time is attention. It is the resource around which everything revolves. Whoever wins it directs energy, creates vibration, movement, life. But demands lurk everywhere: social media feeds, push notifications, news tickers. It is a constant struggle not to let one’s own consciousness be fragmented into a thousand small streams.
The question is simple and brutal at the same time:
How much of our energy do we invest in the great noise and how much in ourselves? When I asked myself this question honestly, I came up with a disturbing 99 to 1. Ninety-nine percent outside, one percent inside. Professionally shaped like a whale that constantly filters water to obtain tiny particles of information. Distraction is easy, focus is hard. Observation is a habit, self-observation is our blind spot.
For a long time, meditation was therefore more like an unfinished obligation for me: everyone talks about how good it is, but it remained sporadic, casual, without any system. It was only a breathwork seminar in central Switzerland that changed things. Suddenly, I understood what I had only suspected before. There are actually many things going on in the body. Two things remained: we carry an internal on-board computer within us, and the key to it is our breath.
Breathing allows us to read information from within ourselves. Trauma, tension, pent-up emotions: what is stored in the body becomes visible through conscious breathing. But it not only opens up introspection, it also opens up control. Breathing techniques can influence heart rate variability, oxygen content, hormones, mitochondria, and organ functions. Studies have observed sometimes dramatic changes in growth hormone release and testosterone. With every conscious breath, you enter the control room of your own nervous system. It frightened me a little that I only understood this at the age of 45. How far might the rest of my life’s dyslexia still reach?
This is where an exciting field of experimentation begins, in which everyone can find their own best way. Mine currently looks like this:
I am currently practicing with a combination of:
-
very slow, connected breathing,
-
a technique of extremely slow, complete exhalation, sometimes resulting in only one breath per minute,
-
alternating with phases of holotropic breathing that reach deep into the nervous system. This is occasionally accompanied by frequency treatment.
The result is astonishing: grounding, mental clarity, inner calm, activation and inner peace all at the same time. The body, which for a long time seemed like a stubborn external entity, becomes part of the self again. It’s almost like magic. With your breath, you can influence circuits that you previously thought were autonomous.
James Nestor has brought the topic of breathing to a wider audience. He found that eighty percent of Americans breathe incorrectly, especially at night. As a freediver, he knew what a difference training makes. While the average person gasps for air after twenty seconds, a world champion can hold out for twenty-nine minutes. The Croatian said that after 20 minutes it became easier. A single breath! Applied to other fields — concentration, creativity, social change — it shows how great the gap is between the untrained and the trained.
Alchemy and Hermeticism of Breathing
Breathing is more than biology. It is polar, like life itself: in and out, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, activity and letting go. Hermeticism teaches us that as within, so without. Breathing proves this law in our own bodies. It is a bridge between spirit and matter, between consciousness and biology. Breathing is frequency. Vibration. The sixth hermetic principle — cause and effect — becomes a living truth in breathing. Every breathing technique is a lever that has a causal effect. Breathe shallowly and quickly, and you will become nervous. Breathe deeply and slowly, and you will become calm. Breathing lies between stimulus and response.
The seventh principle — the principle of gender — also manifests itself: inhalation is active, masculine. Exhalation is letting go, feminine. These forces unite in breathwork. The human being becomes whole.
Alchemy can also be found in the breath: Nigredo, the first conscious inhalation, restlessness, shadow. Albedo, the first deep breath using diaphragmatic breathing: clarification, thoughts become organized, emotions emerge. Citrinitas, insight, inner order, coherence. Rubedo, integration, energy flows, action becomes possible. In this way, the body becomes a laboratory and the breath a tool on the path to a state of inner well-being. Far Eastern traditions have known for millennia that the breath is the carrier of life force — prana, qi. In Kabbalah, ruach, breath and spirit, is the connection to God. In the Bible, God breathes the breath of life into Adam. Everywhere, it is considered a bridge to life.
Breathing: The gold of the now
And that is exactly what our times need: ways to connect with life and remain flexible in a phase of stagnation and necrophilic nihilism. This bridge is the breath, which also represents a bridge to Stoic philosophy, the art (of living) of staying true to oneself. What better way to practice this than through breathing? The world may be spinning faster and faster, but you determine the rhythm of your own breathing.
Of all the cultural techniques I have had the opportunity to learn so far, breathing is the simplest, most effective, and most democratic tool for experiencing self-empowerment.
I am curious to see which ones I will discover and combine. I, too, am only a seeker and a wanderer.
Perhaps this is the alchemical transformation that really counts today, and breathing is the key to it: not gold from lead, but presence from distraction. Integrity from fragmentation. Control over the forum internum. Inner peace in a noisy world.
This transformation begins — with a breath.
ADVERTISEMENT:
Are you looking for the easiest way to buy and store Bitcoin yourself? The Relai appatuszek) is Europe’s most successful Bitcoin app. Hereatuszek) you can buy Bitcoin in just a few steps and also set up savings plans. No one has access to your Bitcoin except you. Relai is now lowering its fee to 1%, and with the referral code MILOSZ, you can save an additional 10%. (This is not financial advice).
THE FRIEDENSTAUBE ALSO FLIES INTO YOUR MAILBOX…
Here you can subscribe to the *Friedenstaube, the first uncensorable peace publication, and receive the articles in your mailbox, free of charge for everyone for the time being; we are starting without a paywall. (Paid subscriptions will only start once a monetization concept for the content is in place). **Would you like to support us with a voluntary subscription or become a publisher by joining the cooperative? More information (also for authors) here.*
The latest articles from Friedenstaube are now also available on our own Friedenstaube Telegram channel.
Can you and want to write? We are also looking for volunteers and interns (contact: friedenstaube@pareto.space).
The Pareto Project is becoming a Swiss cooperative! If you want to help build the future of uncensored journalism & the most data-protecting newsletter service, you can find more information here.
A heartfelt thank you for supporting my work!
You can reach me at kontakt@idw-europe.org.
*Join the marketplace of ideas! We are building a publishing ecosystem on Nostr for citizen-journalism, starting with a client for blogging and newsletter distribution. Sound money and sound information should finally be in the hands of the people, right? Want to learn more about the Pareto Project? Zap me, if you want to contribute (all Zaps go to the project).*
Are you a publication or journalist and want to be part of it, test us, migrate your content to Nostr? Write to support@pareto.space
Not yet on Nostr and want the full experience? Easy onboarding via Start.