Honoring the Breath: A Field Manual & Quick-Reference.
Use this easy tool to get back to healthy breathing, allowing you to take advantage of a variety of health benefits. A walkthrough on correct breathing, reminders, techniques & simple meditations.
What You Will Learn From Reading
The correct physical technique for whole-body breathing.
Understanding shallow breathing & mouth breathing; why we do it and how to fix it.
Tools and tips to help develop and reinforce the behavior of correct breathing so that you don’t fall back into old patterns of shallow breathing.
How to train your body and mind to breath correctly, even when you’re not thinking about it.
Four amazingly simple meditations that will make your breathing meditations fun instead of feeling like a chore.
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The Breath: An Essential Building Block of Health & Happiness
Correct breathing is the first action of mastering mindful action and fundamental health and well-being. It must be performed consciously, subconsciously and consistently. Breathing deeply and fully is foundational to all other practices, mind-body states and techniques of mind-mastery and magicka.
Your first task in all that you will learn at the Cosmic College, is to breathe correctly, in every waking moment. The key to doing this is playing an active role whenever you are conscious of the breath and reinforcing the behavior until it also becomes subconscious and automatic.
Let’s Get Started: Breathing in through your nose and out of your mouth, use your stomach muscles to expand your belly. This allows for the relaxing and opening of your diaphragm, which pulls the air into your lungs. Do not think of using your lungs as the primary muscle. The true breath comes from deep in the belly. It will feel strange at first, but with practice you will notice more and more how natural and healthy this feels. Try a few rounds of this, maybe even taking a few minutes getting comfortable with all the physical aspects of the breathing. Take note of how you feel in your mind and body as you go.
As you start breathing correctly, you will notice several things;
A near-instant relaxation begins to take over in the mind.
A lightweight and energized feeling throughout the physical body.
Increased awareness of the your neglected needs. Breathing deeper means connecting deeper to your experience. Tension, dehydration, injury and stress will all be made more obvious. As a result, you will be able to tend to these needs better.
Flashes of various emotions: negative emotions that you have been neglecting and positive emotions that have been drowned out by tension and the associated shallow breathing.
A sudden increased awareness of your surroundings which engages all of your senses. Sounds become crisper, sights sharper and brighter, the intensity of smells increases and you may even begin to feel the slight movement of air flowing over your skin.
A sharpness of mind that will help you to think more critically, less emotionally and in a more organized way.
Better health over time. Deep breathing oxygenates the body, giving it more energy and enabling it to heal better and quicker.
Things You May Struggle with at First
You will also notice that you tend to fall back into your old patterns of shallow breathing and mouth breathing. This can and will happen anytime you forget where you were in your conscious breathing exercise or meditation. It might happen because you get a rogue thought or have to take care of a pending task.
By the time you remember to return to deep breathing, you will find that you have reverted back to breathing shallow breaths that barely seem to reach the lungs! You may also have noticed that you have an overactive mind that likes to throw you off-course. A random worry, a negative scenario, self-argumentation and many other types. All of which cause you to forget to breathe deeply.
This will pass as you practice and normalize correct breathing. Your mind and body will get adjusted and eventually create new, habitual patterns. Though it will take some time and discipline. In addition to the many techniques and tools I provide in the following sections, consider looking through the Cosmic College library, where you will find a variety of additional helpful items, like “The Power of Totems” series.
Shallow Breathing: Why does it happen?
Modern Anxieties: Much of shallow breathing is the product of anxiety. In turn, shallow breathing facilitates anxiety! It may start as something small you are worrying about. You get lost in the ruminations of that thing and fall out of what is called, the present moment. You might have heard of it.
The Present Moment is about being here now. Many have told you this, but few have properly explained it. If anxiety is worry of the future, then depression is sadness about the past. Both are unresolved tension and neither exist in the present. If we are being pulled into a past memory we still feel negative feelings toward, or if we are constantly gaming out nightmare scenarios in the future based on our expectations, then we are not with our mind or body in what is happening now.
Breaking the Cycle: This break from the present moment results in shallow breathing. It’s a mixture of hypervigilance, over-stimulation and our conscious attention, stretched and strained across the external landscape, which has been overwhelming us with stressful stimuli. It is a chronic form of fight-or-flight which operates quietly, just underneath the surface of everything we think and do. In turn, shallow breathing takes us more into this hypervigilance and disorientation. But although this feels like a hard-to-escape, viscous cycle, it’s not. For all it takes, is the breath.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to resolve these negative emotions, this is something I will be covering in the future. So keep an eye out for Grief Mapping, coming soon!
Reinforcing the Behavior of Correct Breathing
The following sections are all about the tools, tips and tricks to reinforce this behavior. Below you will find Three techniques to reinforce the habit of correct breathing, and four simple meditation exercises to make breathing deeply more fun!
Reminders & Totems
The hardest part is getting started. So having reminders that pop up throughout the day, that bring you back to the breath, are essential to re-developing this habit.
There are so many ways to remind yourself throughout the day, no matter where you are. I’m going to list some of my favorites as a starting point. Though, feel free to get creative and add anything and everything that works for you.
Totems: Usually a physical object that is small enough to carry around with you. Anytime you see it, hold it or feel it in your pocket, start breathing deeply. Connect the idea of breathing deeply to the totem.
The Time: Set a reminder in your mind that anytime you see a certain time, like “8 minutes past the hour” or once every hour whenever you notice. You can increase the frequency of the reminder by doing it every time you look at the time.
Thoughts and Emotions: This one has the dual benefit of being a reminder and helping you to actively reduce stress. Make any negative thought or emotion, a reminder to breathe. If someone makes you angry, breathe. If you start arguing with yourself in your head, breathe.
Active Breathing: As you start an episode of correct breathing, pick a simple task. From writing notes down to washing the dishes. Connect the breath to the steps of the task. As you pull a dirty dish from the counter and put it in the dishwater (or washer) Take a deep breath. As you begin scrubbing the dish, or rinse the excess dirt off another, take another deep breath. Try to go as deep and granular as you can. Breathe deeply as you perform one scrub of a dish, back and forth. Listen to the sounds, feel the technique of the scrubbing. Pay attention to the results. Slow everything down and get into every moment of what you are doing. Always following a micro-action, or a change of position, with a deep breath.
Simple Breathing Meditations
Simplified Energy Body
Take several deep breaths. Allow yourself to enter into a state of relaxation.
Look at you hand and imagine that the energy of the breath and relaxation moves into it. Try to heat up, electrify or pulse your hand with that energy.
Continue focus on this and note any physical sensations.
These sensations can be very pleasant. Take a few minutes simply enjoying the feelings.
Repeat on any other part of your body. Move the energy around to various places.
Five Sense Awareness
Taking several deep breaths, allow yourself to enter into a state of relaxation.
One by one, engage with your senses. Be completely with your sight. Take in everything you see. Notice all the lights, colors, shadows, textures and movement. Focus entirely into the act of seeing and what is seen.
Do the same for each sense, one at a time, with absolute attention and focus on that one thing. Pay attention to every minute quality of the experience. Like, for touch, feel the ambient flow of air over your skin. Is it warm or cool? Do the little hairs on your arms shift as air passes over it? Pick up an object and close your eyes. Finger the many facets and sides, noticing temperature, texture and form.
Feel as if your consciousness extends outward into your environment and you become one with it, one with the present moment awareness of what is happening now.
Cycle through the senses as long as you like, and revisit this meditation at any time, while doing anything. Just make sure you are also breathing deeply and correctly.
Following the Breath
As you start taking deep breaths, imagine that the air itself has a special, energetic quality to it. Attach an idea like flowing water or golden light.
Feel the golden light as it passes the outside of your nose and enters into the nostrils.
Follow it further as it spins through the chambers of your sinus and head, down into the lungs.
Imagine the lungs being filled with this golden light. As you exhale, envision all toxins leaving your body as a grey or black smoke.
Now, see the golden light that has been collected by the lungs precipitate down into the belly region. Imagine that the golden light increases and condenses with every breath.
You may notice that your belly starts to warm up. Feel into this sensation and ignite some of this golden light into a pure energy.
All the while, your toxins leave the body as that visualized grey smoke. The more you breathe, the lighter the smoke gets, until it is no longer smoke, and becomes as clear as the air you inhale.
Move that pure energy from your belly around your body. Consciously move it to areas of the body you feel might need some extra attention. Aches and pains, emotional troubles in the heart. Take it anywhere that you feel would benefit from this spiritualized, healing energy.
Close out the practice by taking a few more deep breaths.
Thinking Your Next Thought
While breathing deeply, try to think of your next thought.
You will notice an immediate quietness take over in your mind. If a present thought arrives or if you mind manages to answer the question, think again of the next thought that hasn’t yet come.
Gently bring your focus to the thinking of your next thought anytime your mind grabs something to think about.
Enjoy the deep relaxation from a quiet mind.
I hope you enjoyed this crash-course in correct breathing. Now that you’re finished, keep in mind, this written work operates as a quick-reference field manual for you. Something you can come back to anytime, to double check an exercise, remind yourself of the importance of breath, and a reinforcement of the positive behavior of correct breathing.
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Ok this contradicts forrest kuntusons video on pantenjalis idea of the tranquil breath were we have moments where we don't really need to breath much we are close to sleeping but more dancing between wakefullness and sleep in mediation and eventually the body dissappear or samahdi happens
Regardless I'll try it!