R.L. Kramer

You are now breathing manually. 

Notice your body taking in and releasing air-taking valuable oxygen, releasing it into your body, and pushing out carbon dioxide. A perfect system. Since we were born, we have done this, mostly automatically, without attention.

Through meditation, we are often told to focus on our breath. It puts the mind at ease for thoughts to relax and allows space for insights to arrive. Breathing has a marked association with relaxation. “Just breathe.”

The short answer, breathwork, is any sort of breath that is done consciously and with intention.

My introduction to breathwork came during a retreat through holotropic techniques. We laid down and breathed together – fast. It was uncomfortable and, in some ways, confusing to the body. Blood draws itself into the body’s trunk-hands and feet going cold and tingling. After 10-15 minutes, the discomfort passes and the breathing becomes easier and more automatic. Visions begin. This is a unique feeling. This is accessible. I had powerful visions during these sessions and walked away with integrated insights into ways to improve my life. I walked away desiring to learn Tai Chi.

In Tai Chi, every move outward is an exhalation, inward, an inhalation. This helped me focus. The more I learned how to control my breath-the more I felt in control of myself, my impulses, my ability to filter distraction. The self narrating voice gets clearer.

I fell off my practices except for retreats, yoga classes, meditations and other weekend events of wellness that I walked away from asking myself, “Why haven’t I been more devoted to these practices?” It seemed I only took part in these kinds of things when someone I paid was instructing me to.

Powerful, magical, life-changing events can come in classical forms, like elders delivering wise words, passing on significant directions. An advertisement can speak to us outside of its intended pitch. For some, it can be looking at a clock and seeing 11:11 while a musical recording whispers, “Get your life together.” For me, it came from a woodworker sharing a YouTube video. 

The video is Wim Hof instructed breathing. Wim Hof is a Dutchman who showed his incredible feats by climbing Everest in shorts without oxygen, running polar marathons in the same condition, beating E-coli with his mind and for a time, holding the record for longest time in a container of ice filled up to his neck.

I stopped working and went outside. Without resistance, I followed the instructions. I laid down in the parking lot. His technique is based on taking in full deep breaths and then letting each go without pause at a powerful pace, opening the lungs, packing on as much oxygen as possible for 30 breaths. Then He instructed to breathe out and hold. At first I was confused. I had always taken a big gulp of air before holding my breath, but OK. I didn’t last but maybe 30 seconds. After the retention, a big inhale- hold for 15 seconds-release. Two more rounds – same sequence.

I liked this and started practicing daily and listened to the audiobook, “Becoming the Ice Man.” By Wim Hof. Narrated by Justin Rosales, who did a great job. But I wished it was in his enthusiastic Dutch accent. He had an incredible life story filled with tragedy and his resilience came in his devotion to breathing and the cold. I was in.

On the way home from work, I grabbed several bags of ice from the gas station, emptied the 50 gallon recycling bin in our driveway, cleaned it out, filled it with hose water, tossed in the ice and got in.

The penetrating cold was shocking. Breathing got me through it. When I got out, I felt electrified with energy. With vigor, I ran around and jumped my cold, shivery body. I was in.

Breathwork and ice baths every morning for several weeks followed. I found that the immense stress I was under got easier to navigate. The trials in my life remained challenging, but I saw them like the bucket of ice I was up to my neck in. It would be easier to handle if I breathed with intention while in it.

I fell out of practice and slipped away from daily breathwork and cold exposure. I fell into an automatic droning through life. I was still excited about ice baths and breathwork, but I wasn’t as disciplined in my practice.

I experienced a sudden disc herniation. Pain was all-encompassing. I wrote a detailed account of it here. The breathwork became my salvation from pain. Along with ice baths, visualization and physical therapy, I made it out. The most important insight I received during this recovery was this:

“I have to be an active participant in my own healing.”

Pills, surgeries, injections, etc. have their value. But these are passive modalities. I had to do more. My doctor said she wishes she could prescribe visualization to her patients when I shared what helped me recover.

Being challenged with pain gave these techniques the opportunity to prove their worth. I owe them my back. It was looking like surgery. Equipped with the Wim Hof method and positive visualization, I turned down all the drugs and the option of back surgery. I committed to daily breathwork, a practice that has gone deeper and deeper as time has gone by. Benefits making themselves obvious in subtle ways. More obvious when I realize I haven’t done the practice that day.

After daily breathing, I feel clear, aligned, and focused. I am now enrolled in a Prana Yama class, learning to go deeper, integrating more breath techniques into my daily practice.

There is benefit in having a daily practice that is centered on wellness. Be it what it is for you. A walk, meditation, prayer or journalling. Consistency is a muscle.