Life Has a Rhythm and That Rhythm Is Held by Your BREATH

From episode: Exploring Life's Complexities: The Power of Self-Inquiry, Breathwork, and Compassion

I was asked over the weekend that led to a whole experience.

So a close friend of mine asked me a question, what does sad feel like?

And I asked him, well, what do you think that feels like?

He answered, I don't know. This is why I'm asking you. I think I'm sad. Yeah.

And I then asked, well, what other emotions do you feel? Do you feel anger? Do you feel resentment? Do you feel frustration?

And he said, yeah, something like that.

Now, get this, we had just smoked a joint.

So I told him that that was a great idea. Get up, let's go. We're going to process this energy.

And he was like, wait, what, what do you mean? What are you talking about?

And so I'm like, we're going to go punch the punching bag. Right.

And at first, he was hesitant. He's like, what do you mean? We don't have gloves. What do you mean? What, what, why?

But he finally got up and we went to the local gym, which was right there in the same building.

And again, like I said, no gloves, no wraps. We were just going to punch for two minutes and easy piece, easy peasy, right. At an easy pace.

So I went first and I've learned right to use my breathing.

So I use the breath of fire, which kind of is like, right.

And so I use the breath of fire technique to put rhythm into my punches.

And for a solid two minutes, I was able to keep a constant pattern and complete the two minutes. Right.

It was his turn. Now he was a bit intimidated of having to do two minutes, but he did it. So started a timer and he was off.

Now at first I noticed he was a bit uncoordinated. Yes.

But eventually, he got into a pattern into flow and he was able to keep it. Yes.

Now, second round. Now I want you to break hell on that bag is what I told him.

I want you to connect to your anger, your frustration, your lack of clarity, connect to your sadness, connect, breathe, and then fucking impact. Yes.

I went first to the, by example, to show and I released, man.

It had been a while since I had done the exercise and this is for myself. Right.

And I always love coming back to this exercise. So, uh, we put the timer on for a minute and I went, I went on it.

I went the solid one minute, full intensity, intensity, full intensity doing exactly what I always do.

I breathe, I shout and my animal comes out and I fucking destroy that punching bag.

I let all my emotion out.

And yet once that timer goes off and that timer is done, I pull back.

I recenter. I focus on my deep breaths, moving that energy across my field, expanding my magnetic field, bending the ether with my energy, or at least I'd like to believe so, right?

I like to believe in that, especially in those moments.

I'm like Dragon Ball Z. I'm like, I'm like Goku.

Anyway, once I went, it was his turn.

And so I gave, I did my best to model, right? Full expression.

And then I started the timer and then he was off.

And as he went at it, I reminded him of his anger, of his frustration, of his sadness.

I reminded him to let it out. I shouted, giving him permission to shout.

He shouted and he gave his anger and frustration, a sound, the vibration.

He punched, he kicked, he elbowed. He did everything in his power to transfer that energy onto that punching bag, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, times up.

And he was having a hard time breathing.

He was literally on the verge of throwing up.

And that's when I helped him breathe.

And slowly breath by breath, he started to calm his heartbeat.

And once he stabilized his breath, we were done for the night.

Now let's go debrief.

How do you feel to which he answered?

I now understand breathing, right?

He tells me the first round I saw you breathe and keep a rhythm.

I had never considered to synchronize my breathing to my punching.

So it took a while to get a hang of it.

But once I did, I fell into this trance.

And in that moment, I looked over to you realizing what you were trying to have us do at the retreat.

Life has a rhythm, and that rhythm is held by your breath.

Breathing dictates how you fight.

Breathing dictates how you fuck.

Breathing dictates how you walk and how you handle life.

Boom. That was beautiful.