Breath is a Portal

All right, and welcome back. So today we're going to talk about something that is so fundamental to being a human that sometimes we forget about it.

But it's also one of the most powerful tools of transformation we can use in all of men's work and all of any kind of transformative work for that matter. And it's one that's been getting more popular every year now. But it's also ancient in terms of the wisdom behind it and how many people have known. It is key to thriving. And it's the breath breathing.

Now, what I want to specifically highlight today is how unique our breath is. So if you think about your body, it's actually not one thing. It's many things and many systems all working together in harmony to keep you alive. Now, the fascinating thing about so many of those systems in our body is they just happen.

They're just functioning. Your immune system is just doing its thing. Your pancreas is just doing its thing. Your liver, your spleen, your heart, they're just doing their thing. You don't have to think about them, and you don't have a whole lot of control over them. You can't really spleen harder. No matter how you sit on your meditation cushion or how you work out, most of the systems that govern our body are automatic and are unconscious in the sense we don't have an ability to directly access them or change them.

The breath, however, is a really unique system in that it straddles both. You can go days without consciously thinking about your breath, and yet you're still breathing. When you fall asleep and you enter that deep and dreamless state, you're still breathing. When you're an infant born into the world in your first minutes, your body just knows how to breathe.

You don't have to figure it out. The system just starts running. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Now, what makes the breath so powerful and unique amongst all the systems in our body is it's also one we can choose to consciously control. Right now, I can say become aware of your breath.

Take a big, deep breath in, hold and release. You just took control of the breath process in your body. You can breathe shallow, you can breathe deep, you can breathe slow, you can breathe fast, sharp, etcetera breath is unique because it's both an automatic process inside of us and one we have access to, which is what makes it so crucial in any kind of work where we're looking to transform our state.

So the way we're showing up in the moment, because our breath is one that we can consciously control, it's our interface, so to speak, with so many of those unconscious systems in our bodies. Slow, deep, full breaths send signals to our body to relax, to wind down, and to go into a more calm and relaxed and parasympathetic state.

Fast breath tells our body, wake up, pay attention, it's time to move, it's time to release, it's time to do something. Here can literally take yourself on a transformational journey, having out of body experiences. Memories from your past come up almost like psychedelic trips just by breathing hard. That's how powerful it is.

And it's what makes breath so key to your well being in your transformation. Your breath is a portal to the moment, to your body, to its systems, and to transformation and consciousness and presence itself. It's the way to influence what is often untouchable inside ourselves.

It's totally unique in that it's both an unconscious process and one we can take the reins of, we can control. And by controlling it, you can think of it as we're kind of steering the ship of so many of those other systems indirectly in our body, but it's the portal to them. And there are more studies than I can possibly recount in this podcast about the power of breath and how it can relax us and change the hormones moving through our body, how it can influence our immune system, how it can completely change how people experience us in the moment.

And that all just comes through breath. And because it's also an unconscious process, it tends to be the home of a lot of unconscious habits for us. Most of us in Western culture these days are walking around in habitually stressed out bodies that are breathing super shallow, maybe just a little bit of movement in the upper chest, but often not more than that.

We have to learn or unlearn, I should say often how to breathe, how to open our chests, expand our belly, how to bring that air all the way down into our root and then release it all the way up. Breath is the portal to so much power in our lives as men. It's really the key to our sexuality.

There's so many different methods, right? And the kind of what seems to people to be like a mythological state of the multi orgasmic man. So the ability of a man to have many orgasms or to orgasm without ejaculation. And yes, there's physical things you can do to support that. But really, what it comes down to more than anything else is learning to control your breath.

Mastering our breath consciously can change our sexuality, can change how we interact with people, can change how much vitality we feel in our bodies, all just through the breath. It is the portal between the conscious and the unconscious. It is actually, as I teach my men, the pathway to presence that's available to you in any moment.

The second you tune into your breath and the second you begin to consciously guide it, you are present. You can't breathe in the past or breathe in the future. You can only breathe in the moment. Now, that said, one of the other powerful things about breath, and why I think it's such a powerful portal, is it represents one of the most fundamental polarities and dualities in life.

There are beginning and end, life and death, or what we could also call masculine and feminine. You can label them whatever you want. These aren't. This isn't about the gender roles and stereotypes. This is about just these energies themselves, the energies of creation. As one of my teachers puts it. We start our lives with an inhale, bringing life force in, bringing possibility in.

And we end our life with an exhale, releasing, discarding all that we don't need, going towards emptiness. This process is happening in you dozens of times a minute, countless times in a lifetime. And many people spend the majority of their life not conscious and not aware of their breath. And it keeps going, just doing its own thing.

But as a practitioner, we have the opportunity to use that breath as a portal. Portal to change, portal to becoming more aware in the moment. As you breathe deeply, you are coming more into this moment, coming more into the presence. You are coming more into the present. There are so many different ways to work on personal growth and transformation, but breath is one that's free.

You have access to it at any time. And while, yes, there's some training, you can start right away. Am I breathing deeply? How am I breathing right now? What signal do I want to send to my body with my breath? You have that power. It is your portal. You have that power, and it is the portal between the conscious and the unconscious.

And every time you breathe with intention, you are more conscious. So start breathing. So, as strange as it sounds, remember to breathe. And it's okay if you don't because your body's got. You want to learn more about your breath and how it can impact growth, presence, and your relationships check out my free training at Evolutionary Got Men Slash Webinar.

And then book a call with me after. We can talk about working together. Until next time.