From the Introduction:
In order to function normally during acute stress–for example, while a gun (or two) is pointed at your head– caused by what the experts call a critical incident–you must be able to control your response. Luckily, we humans can do just that. We can train our responses. We can increase our capacity for stress. Fortunately, resilience is not fixed at birth; it can be developed and strengthened. With training, police officers, soldiers, and other first responders gain the fortitude to do their jobs under external conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (or VUCA)– to make good decisions and execute them despite the internal fog and friction acute stress causes.
While I can’t prove it to you, I’m certain my relative calm through those harrowing seconds contributed to my escaping without a scratch, without losing anything more than the $27 those teens found before tossing my wallet (one of the detectives found it nearby).
In the hours and days after that incident, I replayed the scene over and over in my head. What might’ve happened, I wondered, had I freaked out or fought back or run or screamed? How would they have responded had I insulted them? Did it make a difference that I made eye contact, as you’re told to? Supposedly, avoiding making eye contact increases your risk of assault. The one thing I knew for sure was that my yoga, breathwork, and meditation routines, habits, and practices helped me steer the outcome that day. I am so lucky I fell in love with meditation, breathwork, and yoga at the age of fourteen.
And speaking of steering the outcome, it brings to mind something a San Diego police officer wrote as part of his evaluation of a resilience training pilot program:
Last week, I was in a situation in which a person squared off on me and started reaching in his jacket. I went to my breath and activated coherence and never felt anything but calm. As I noticed the sirens of my backup arriving, I realized my heart was beating slowly. Every other time that has happened, I basically screamed for backup and it took me a whole day to calm down. When my captain got there, he said he thought I was kidding when I put out the call because I sounded so calm on the radio. He asked what I’d been doing differently. This stuff is for real. The knowledge that I can control my reactions is huge!1
* * *
Let me say the main thing right here, right now: your greatest resource for having more energy, vitality, enjoyment, and productivity is not inside these pages.
Ready for the good news?
You already have it. Your easiest, most direct access to increased vitality, productivity, and happiness has been right here under your nose the whole time you’ve been searching for it! Breath-centered practices, as you will soon discover, are simple tools, techniques, and practices with which you will access them. They are simple, easy to learn, and, you’ll be happy to know, easy to incorporate into a busy lifestyle.
Breath training is for everyone, whether the crisis should be a matter of life and death or a matter of surviving the cumulative effects of a daily commute. You don’t have to be on the front lines–you needn’t be a soldier or police officer–to suffer the ill effects of stress. But you can be sure of one thing: if breathwork training is being incorporated by the military, by law enforcement, and by other first responders, it must work. And if breath-centered practices can help police officers, soldiers, firefighters–all kinds of first responders, you can be sure they can help you.
Inquiry Question: Is my breathing shallow or deep as I read these words?
Are Breath-centered Practices for me?
There are only two ways to reduce stress: eliminate the cause or increase capacity. Reducing or eliminating stress is an attractive option for many people, but who really wants to give up everything modern life makes possible? I say the better solution is to increase our capacity! Only by increasing your capacity can you successfully take on additional stress, be it a new job, getting married, raising children, or weathering an unforeseen crisis. If, on top of that, you want not merely to survive but to thrive, well then, learning the practices provided in this book will be of tremendous help. Not only will these techniques help you manage whatever stress you have now, but they also increase your ability to perform under the increased levels of stress that come with success.
Are you worried about how you’ll find the time to do these practices? Or do you think it selfish to indulge in ‘me time’? Allow me to dispel those misunderstandings right now. The truth is, breathwork changes everything you do. When you practice first thing in the morning, it especially changes how your day unfolds. You will be less reactive. More patient. A better listener. A better performer. A better friend, spouse, parent, child. Maybe even a better boss.
While you may not be able to establish and sustain an ambitious, formal home practice initially, that’s not a problem. It’s also no problem if you have zero interest in doing so. I’ll show you a simple and effective method for creating your first breath habit. Before you know it, you will reap dividends far greater than your investment. The effects grow quickly, snowballing by the power of compound interest!
You—and everyone you interact with—will be glad you did.
I have studied, practiced, and taught each and every one of these practices. Many times. Over the years I have tweaked, altered, customized, and occasionally come up with something new. But you can rest assured that every technique and every practice is grounded in tradition.
You can rest assured that many, if not all, of the practices you’re about to learn have been studied by eminent researchers in the field such as Dr. Dan Siegel, Sat Bir Khalsa, and Shirley Telles. I’ve included select examples from their work where needed. At the same time, I have limited the number of citations to avoid turning this introductory book into an academic tome. I have written it for the general reader, for the person who has an interest but is not already in my choir, so to speak.
“Of all the methods I’ve seen […] the most time effective and cost effective are breathing techniques. … It literally makes use of something that’s right under your nose, it requires no equipment, and it’s free.” -Andrew Weil
Without a doubt, the most heartening evidence for the power of these techniques I have found comes from their use as a treatment for post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD. Later on, you’ll learn more about that. Right now I just want to tell you that this book is not about treating trauma. The focus of this book is on garden-variety stress, not major illness.
Breath-centered practices bring you home, back to the place you’ve been too busy to visit–your living, breathing body. From there, the sky’s the limit: they can take you to blissful states as high as the stars. I experienced this after a breath intensive in India. I call it my mountaintop experience. I can only describe it with paltry words such as bliss, the Garden of Eden, and the peace that surpasses understanding.
Benefits
• Resilience
• Increased capacity for stress
• Better sleep
• Better communication
• Increased focus and concentration
• More energy
• Effortless weight loss
• Sense of calm serenity
• More courage
• Access to intuition and innate wisdom
Is This Book For You?
Breathing for many, if not most, of us is ‘invisible’: what I mean is that breathing tends to be unconscious and unappreciated. In this book, you will discover how your own breathing can become a barometer, a tool, a companion, a mystery, and a miracle. You will learn several powerful, yet simple and easy, practices to stimulate, calm, and balance your energy, mood, and mind.
This book is for you if:
• You are looking for a natural, holistic, and healthy way to manage stress, anxiety, insomnia, or depression
• You want to take charge of your own health and well-being; you want to cultivate greater health, vitality, and resilience
• You are seeking spiritual growth and transformation, in order to manifest your greatest potential
• You are looking for a better way to increase your productivity, whether in your studies or your job
• You find yourself unable to concentrate and you want to sharpen your focus, stay on task, on track–you want to get more done with less anxiety
• You are a teacher, a mental health professional, a caregiver, parent, therapist, doctor, coach, or a mentor, and you are looking for new ways to help those you serve
Why One Half-Breath?
Speaking of the present moment, are you wondering why the title is “One Half-Breath At A Time” instead of “One Breath At A Time”? The reason is simple. According to Daniel N. Stern, M.D., author of The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life, what we call ‘the present moment’ lasts a mere three to five seconds. Breathing slowly, at a rate of six times per minute, means each inhale and each exhale lasts approximately five seconds. Thus, one half-breath equals one moment of now. I would go so far as to argue that there is no now at all any time you breathe faster than eight or 10 breaths per minute, there simply is no present moment. You’re alive, obviously. You may be productive and efficient. But you are not present to it. In short, your only access to optimum focus, productivity, vitality, power, intimacy, and presence lies within the span of one half-breath. Furthermore, when you make breathing slowly a habit you widen the present moment beyond five seconds and gain access to even greater capacities.
Inquiry Question: In this moment, is my breathing smooth and rhythmic—or is it jerky and ragged? In this right-here, right-now half-breath, effortless and easy—or is it, instead, effortful and uneasy? In other words, is my breathing stress-free or stressed out?
More than anything else, I want you to enjoy breathing.
While you’re reading this book, and especially as you’re doing the exercises and inquiries, allow yourself to simply do what you’re doing in the moment. Be present. For that time span, those moments you spend focused on your breathing, indulge yourself in the simple pleasure of rhythm. The simple act of turning one’s attention onto the cyclical pattern of breathing can be profoundly calming. It takes no more than two or three cycles for a feeling of pleasure to arise, for
Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter. When it becomes reliable, we are in a kind of body-heaven.
-Mary Oliver
But, before that’s even possible, you might need to spend a bit of time sensitizing yourself to your own breathing. You might need to train your ‘inner ear’ before you can actually feel, sense, and hear your own breathing. As Ty Ford, my friend, audio guru, and gifted sound healer, said about training people to make better audio recordings at home: the first part of any training is awareness training. Ty was talking about the challenge of teaching yoga teachers how to make better audio recordings, but it applies equally when learning about breath-centered practices. In other words, there’s no way you can master breath-centered practices unless and until you develop greater awareness of your own breathing to start with. That’s the purpose of spending time practicing the deep breath inquiry several times, as well as cultivating the tiny habit of mindfulness of how you breathe in different situations outside of formal practice.
More than anything else, I want you to start enjoying breathing a little more. Just because you can. Just because the best things in life are free, like this one half-breath you’re taking right now. Dormant joy and latent bliss exist nowhere else, only in this inhale, only in this exhale. Don’t miss it! Breath-centered practices are so simple, in fact, there’s no reason not to start right now!
Your First Breath Practice
1. Inhale slow and deep
2. Hold the air inside for three to eight seconds
3. Exhale even more slowly than you inhaled through your mouth
4. Allow the air to flow out as you relax your jaw, lips – every part of your face
5. Inhale again, even slower and deeper
6. Hold it a little longer this time to absorb all that oxygen, all that life energy you inspired!
7. Exhale as before but really draw it out long and slow as you relax your entire body, heart, and mind.
Imagine the Difference
Imagine, for a moment, the difference it will make to you, both personally and to those around you, once you learn how to:
• Defuse stress and anxiety simply by changing your breathing
• Respond calmly rather than react in unpleasant situations
• Summon hidden reserves of energy, stamina, and courage with one quick and easy breathing trick
• Relax deeply
• Sleep better – and wake up restored
• Access deep reserves of creativity, serenity, and wisdom
• Increase your resilience
• Shake off stress or even learn to turn it into a renewable energy source
• Be more accepting, patient, and tolerant
• Spend more moments during your day feeling calm, happy, even joyous for no reason
• Uncover, or recover, your true nature: bliss!
While you may not be able to establish and sustain an ambitious, formal home practice initially, that’s not a problem. It’s also no problem if you have zero interest in doing so. I’ll show you a simple and effective method for creating your first breath habit. Before you know it, you will reap dividends far greater than your investment. The effects grow quickly, snowballing by the power of compound interest!
You—and everyone you interact with—will be glad you did.
Buy Now
1 Weltman, G., Lamon, J., Freedy, E., & Chartrand, D. (2014). Police department personnel stress resilience training: an institutional case study. Global advances in health and medicine, 3(2), 72-9.