breath as the barometer
Breathwork practice can take endless forms, if you let it. By intentionally connecting with your breath in the present moment, you’ve technically started practicing. It can be informational just as much as it can be transformational.
One of my favorite ways to work with the breath to inform me, is a little practice that I like to call ✳︎Breath as the Barometer✳︎. Just like we can check a traditional barometer to get a read on the pressure in the air at any given moment, we can check in with our breath to get a read on the pressure within our own energy field - because the first and most prominent thing that energetic pressure affects is our breathing.
It’s a beautiful way to stop overanalyzing and simply tune in to the deep and ever-present wisdom of the body. Without a thought, our breath tells us if the energy of a person, place, or thing activates resistance or ease within us, if those words that we just expressed or received resonate as truth, or if we’re approaching our current situation from a constricted or expansive state.
When we use our breath as a barometer - we become intimately attuned to our unique energetic flow, because it’s always mirrored by the depth, pace, and breadth of the air flow within our body. And the more finely we attune to our own energy field, the more we effortlessly connect with and understand our inner guidance system. It speaks in subtleties until we learn to turn up the volume on its gorgeous, visceral language.
When we allow life to be informed from this embodied place, confusion visits us far less often, boundaries become crystal clear, and we begin to ride the waves of our lives with much more receptivity and fluidity. We spend far less time in our minds trying to figure things out, because in many cases, our breath tells us all we need to know.
Once we begin to trust in this living library of information, we naturally initiate our own transformation - which we can also allow our breath to guide every step of the way. I love to use passive practices - like this one - to inform, and more active, structured practices to transform. It all begins with our intention, and our choice to connect.
⏀