Episode 39
The Power of Breath: Calming, Healing, Expanding
The Power of Breath: Calming, Healing, Expanding with Miriam Trahan
In this episode we get curious about:
- Understanding breath practice
- Best practice in proper breathing and breath awareness
- Meeting your inner higher self
- How to carry that high vibration even when you are out into the world
To learn more about our guest:
Website: https://www.miriamsmeditations.com
Podcast: https://www.miriamsmeditations.com/podcast
Credits
Photography & Design: https://ashamclaughlin.wixsite.com/tejart
Music: Where the Light Is by Lemon Music Studio
Producer: Arlene Membrot
Audio Engineer: Sam Wittig
To learn more about Laurin Wittig and her work: https://HeartLightJoy.com
Copyright 2024 Laurin Wittig
Transcript
So, when we are quiet and we've done some breath exercises and now we are just breathing, it's a little easier to follow your breath. But we also become who Eckhart totally refers to as, who are you when you are not thinking?
[:She says in her bio, Aloha! Practicing breath work as a gateway to deep nourishing meditation for over 30 years. Miriam offers a gentle, practical perspective on inner explorations, self-care, and expansions of consciousness. All things I love to talk about. So welcome to Curiously Wise, Miriam.
[: [: [: [: [:It made meditation accessible which up until that point had not really been happening for me. I had really struggled for a number of years to find any way in just watching my breath or concentrating on an object or even guided meditations as they were available at that time didn't really help me arrive at that meditative state.
So, I have studied breath for many years. It's continued to practice. And then I am now studying with a group called Light Body at orrindubin.com. It is a meditation practice that's very specialized in explorations of consciousness, which it really appeals to me. So, breath and consciousness and how do you get to meditation?
Those are, those are the things I work on.
[: [:A lot of people tend to breathe too rapidly, and there's a common misconception about breath and breath practice that it means that you're going to be taking really big breaths. Well, it's not really possible to take big breaths if you're already kind of overfilled with old breath, right? So, a lot of what I do is help people exhale.
And now as we've been talking about breath, you may feel that your breath has gone kind of weird and you've sort of suddenly forgotten how to breathe.
[: [:But your ability to have a breath that matches the circumstances that you are in. So, let's say you are sitting quietly reading, your breath should be pretty long and not very many breaths per minute because you don't have a lot of demand on your physiology. If you're running or dancing or cleaning the house, your breaths should match that activity.
For many of us, that's not really the case. We breathe kind of the same all the time. So, when we're in that quiet activity, we're probably over breathing, we're probably breathing too fast. And then you get up and start doing things. Your breath may not be deep enough, it may not be able to bring in enough oxygen and let go of enough waste material from your body.
Most of the waste that the body expends in the course of a day leaves the body through the breath.
[: [: [: [:So, it's really important. It's also really important to get a good balance of oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. And that's also another thing that generally takes place under our notice. So, as we begin to notice our breath, one of the first things that I teach is kind of how to notice your breath. And how to breathe like a baby.
So, babies breathe in this really gentle fluid or a puppy. You ever see a puppy and their little bellies are just going, they're really, they're like rubber. They're really soft. Well, if we get to be adults, we're not very rubbery anymore for the most part. And all of the places where your ribs attached to your sternum or attached to your spine are made of cartilage. Cartilage is the same thing your ears are made of.
[: [:You can just put your hands on your body very gently. And the first thing to do is just notice how you're breathing. Does it seem like it's kind of fast? Are you a little lightheaded now that you've been thinking about your breathing? Can you get your abdomen to open? Do your ribs move at all? So, these are all explorations you can do on your own.
This is not meditation, it's really breath practice, it's breath awareness. So, I encourage people to start with breath awareness.
[:So instead of like you had a vinyasa flow or you had a particular, you know, set of movements you had to do, she would focus on one thing for a while and she loved to focus on opening up our ribcage.
[: [: [: [: [: [: [:A, a, a couch or a cushion or a bed is fine, but the floor is really, you really get a lot of information.
So, if you can get down to the floor and back up again, I encourage you to try the floor and support your head. So, your neck is not in a funny position, but if you can bring the awareness to the back body as you breathe, it might even take a little bit of engaging the muscles in the front of the body so that the breath can move into the back and you'll see immediately how well do those ribs move.
[: [:And if you can free up your, your intercostal muscles and all of that tissue that's between the ribs, you might find that some back issues that you may have had start to ease up. It might just be a stiffness in your rib cage, whoever thinks of that, but you can use your breath to open that space.
[: [:How well does your abdomen move? Can you imagine the breath coming into some part of your body that you're having a bit of an issue with? You have a sore joint. You have something on the body that is asking for healing. As you get more experienced with this, you can begin to use your imagination to draw the breath into the body in that place that needs a little nourishment.
And you know what happens? The breath goes there, the energy of the breath will arrive in that place. It's kind of effortless. It doesn't take a lot of practice to learn to be able to do that. And if you can get even the smallest amount of relief, let's say you have an issue that's been with you for a long time.
It's taken a lot of years or months to get to the place where you are now. To expect that it would unwind immediately is probably not realistic. But if you can make a small measure of change, any kind of shift, you may find, oh, there's a little relief there that I didn't have before. And if you apply this technique over a period of time, you can begin to move the healing energy of the breath into that part of your body.
And then maybe even on the exhale release something that had been carried there. And what I find with the, now we are into breath practice, so now we're using the breath to do different things. Breath is also. Part of your emotional and mental bodies, you can use your breath to locate something on your body that might need attention.
You may suddenly feel you have a strong emotional reaction. There may be something entangled in your tissues there that was an emotional thing that's now beginning to soften and release, or a mental pattern that, oh, I'm thinking about that thing I always think about. And oh, maybe it's attached to this part of my body that is having an issue, and oh, now I'm having a flood of emotion.
So, we get these entanglements between the mental and emotional bodies, and then now it's expressed in the physical body, and you can begin to become aware of it and disentangle it simply by breathing.
[:Just, you know, imagine your breath goes here and usually after two or three breaths it starts to release.
[:And so, in my podcast we have breathing exercises. I have several seasons of Miriam's meditations that are online available at all the various podcast servers. And if you start at the beginning, in the beginning, I give a lot more instruction on how to do these breath practices. As we move along, there's less instructions.
So, if you're new to breath practice, you might wanna start closer to the beginning. And the, the breath practices that we do in my podcast are very accessible to anyone. And, they give your brain something to do. So…
[: [:But when I found this breath teacher and began to do alternate nostril breathing, or we actually have a breath practice that's called the rib stretching breath, where we put our hands on either side of our ribcage, breathe in a full and complete breath, and then use our hands to press on the ribcage as you exhale.
So, you wanna try that hand on either side of your ribcage, exhale all the air in your lungs to prepare. All right. Now just breathe in a full and complete breath. Notice if your ribs are moving, and as you exhale, just press with your hands and move your ribs.
[: [: [: [: [: [:So, the ribcage should move in all four directions. You should move in the front. They should pivot a little bit under your armpits and they should move in the back. So, it's like a balloon opens. And a balloon deflates. And so, if you're not getting movement in all four directions, there's some work that you can do.
But the breath exercises themselves, we put together in a sequence, not unlike a yoga sequence of physical movements. And when you do them one exercise after another, and you've been doing this now for 10 or 12 minutes, and then you pause, there's a kind of ringing silence.
[: [:Not only are you a little more oxygenated, which is always good for the body, your carbon dioxide balance has come so that the carbon dioxide is leaving the body and a way that is balanced. Your mind is now clear and your emotions have settled down. This is an excellent time to approach a meditative state.
[: [: [: [:So, when we are quiet and we've done some breath exercises and now we are just breathing, it's a little easier to follow your breath. But we also become who Eckhart totally refers to as who are you when you are not thinking?
[: [: [: [:I always ask my students to put a pen and pad next to their seat because when you become quiet, something that happens in the beginning and, and even as you become an experienced meditator, is that your ordinary mind may have some very important things it wants to tell you. Things that it doesn't want you to forget.
And if you try to use your usual mind to try and remember them so you don't forget, cuz it really is important. You're never gonna get to the meditative clarity that you are looking for. So, I just write them down and I keep writing them down so my ordinary mind quits telling me important things it wants me to remember.
And then we're quiet again. So as a kind of meeting yourself in your ordinary way, your ordinary mind, your everyday mind that's busy, and it's important to be busy. Your personality is an important part of who you are. And then now it's like emptying a cup, pouring out all the water, and you've put it on the paper so that later when you are in your quiet moment, the ordinary mind pops back up and goes, hey, remember that thing I told you not to remember?
You can say, yeah, I know. I wrote it down. Look with one eye. Yeah, I did. I wrote that down,
[: [:It's just another part of our consciousness. So now we have put it all down on the piece of paper. Now we have another level of ease and repose. Now there's another level of quiet. Now who's there? That's where you meet your true self. That's where you meet your deeper knowing, your higher self, your inner being is right there, ready to make your acquaintance, and that's another level of the meditative state.
And you, you have to pass through all of these various levels until you get to a place where there is really just a kind of stillness that's also very dynamic. There's still something happening. It's not nothing.
[:But I couldn't hear it. There was too much else going on, so I can really hear my, hear me, hear my wise. I call it Wise Laurin, so I can hear wise Laurin.
[:And sometimes if you're ready for a shift, it might bring to your awareness something that you may be ready to work on more at the personality level.
[: [: [: [: [: [:We're opening spaces where others can open also to a similar flow and find what they need in the energies. And this, I believe, is how humanity is evolving its consciousness. In this period of time when the problems seem so insurmountable. It is we who need to change how we are approaching life and draw this deeper wisdom forward because that's where the answers will come from.
[: [:Like, oh, that's that belief pattern. Or something someone once told me about myself that I don't really even believe is true. But there it is, still there kind of haunting me and I can learn to begin to put that aside so that when it, when it pops up again, I can say, hmm, no thanks.
[: [:They began to dissolve of their own accord because I spent more and more time in these spaces with my wise inner being that the energy that was feeding them, that momentum that had been in place began to dissolve and they went away over time. It just clarified. There was personal work to do. I sat with therapist.
I did all kinds of other work, but I did find that the breath and the meditation was an integral part of really being able to heal that at a very deep level and leave it behind.
[:But you know, it's your mother's voice and it's right here, you know. But I got to where I could, I could go, okay, I just need to reset.
[: [: [:What I found was when I had a practice that was suited to me, friend, for me that was, I started with the breath, then the practice be quickly, became essential, and it created its own momentum. And momentum is kind of an underrated quality that many of the things that we are doing in our ordinary lives, we are maintaining with a, and it has a kind of momentum.
And when you begin to change from the inside out, that momentum can keep that thing going for a little while. So, what you are wanting to do is place your momentum in this new you, in this new practice.
It's just momentum. It is going to fade when you stop giving it any attention. And the new thing that you're doing will have, will have the momentum, and that's where the practice comes in.
So, here's my second tip that I always give people when they're new to practice. That makes it a little easier. When I first started doing my practice, I found a piece of music that I really liked. It had no words, so it didn't entrain my brain in any, it didn't entangle my brain in any thoughts. It was new to me. I was, I didn't have any associations attached to it. It was long, it was like 30 minutes. It was just instrumental, what we used to call New Age music.
It was really lovely. It was very peaceful, but not so peaceful that I would go to sleep. I just saved this piece of music just for my breath and meditation practice. I didn't use it for anything else, and I, I just sort of found this just by doing it. No one told me to do this, but what I did find was when I would sit down, I'd put on my music. My body had become entrained to the music and my body said, it's time to breathe.
And it made it so much easier because now I was friends with my body, my body and I were in it together and the music was the thing that brought it into harmony and made it so much easier. So, I just put my music on. I started my breath practice and before you knew it, you know, a half hour had gone by and I was still sitting there enraptured by this beauty that just welled up from inside of me.
And so, find yourself piece of music, and save it just for your practice. I used the same piece of music for over a year. I didn't use it for anything else, and it was just an amazing discovery.
[: [: [: [: [: [:Select something that's meaningful to you or that's appealing, and use it for your practice. So, I, I have found that and having a little, a little spot that's just for your practice even if it's a rolled-up yoga mat and you just roll it up, put it back in the corner. But if you can light a candle or have a vase with some flowers or some crystals, or even just a picture of someone you love, that's beautiful.
A scene that's beautiful. If you can make a beauty corner for yourself, a little beauty place.
[: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [:It may or may not have words. It may or may not even have symbols or many times for me, I'm, I'm, I'm somewhat visual, but I didn't start being visual in the beginning. Meditation was just felt sense for me. I felt different.
[: [: [: [:And that was sufficient. I definitely felt different. I felt things, and not just emotional things, but flows of energy, patterns of energy, a sense of expansion. A sense of spaciousness or perhaps a very pinpointed focus. All of these things are ways that you can learn to perceive inside your own consciousness.
[: [: [: [: [: [:You may even find your ancestors come to speak with you, or a guide may show up with a very high energy or a gift. These are all things that I've experienced in the meditative state, and then bringing myself back to my ordinary state, allowing a few moments of quiet and to call some of that. Back into my ordinary reality gives me a way to stitch this all together because it's not really, you're one thing here and you're another thing there.
It's a continuum of consciousness. It's a spectrum of consciousness. And there are vistas, I call them different places where you can sort of land with your consciousness and, oh, things seem very different here. Oh, I'm back to my ordinary consciousness. What did I do to arrive at that vista? Can I repeat those steps and so I can find that again?
And often the answer is yes, sometimes not. I try not to get too attached to having a magnificent experience every time, because that definitely doesn't happen, even as I've had many years of practice. But there are often beautiful and amazing experiences, and it's always worth it to sit.
[: [: [: [: [: [:Your natural true vibration is not static, but this high, pure tone, this beautiful energy, that's the true nature of who we really are.
[:And then I have to go out into the world. And so, so one of the things that I have, I'm getting better at, at like holding that vibration, cuz I spend more time in it now, but do you have any suggestions for people when you to moving from that beautiful place out? You know, you gotta go to work or you gotta go pick up the kids or whatever it is, how can you begin to carry that with you?
[: [: [: [: [:We are accustomed to shielding our hearts and shielding ourselves against the world because we perceive the world to be unfriendly.
[: [:And now I'm not recommending that people deliberately put themselves in unsafe situations. And if you have a lot of social anxiety or personal anxiety, that's obviously something that you will want to take in very small increments. However, if you are going to a place where you can reliably expect to be treated in a friendly fashion, that's a place that you can practice.
[: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [:Just you don't even have to close your eyes. If you don't feel safe to close your eyes, don't close your eyes, but you can bring your fingertips together and you can breathe in through your nose and out through your nose.
And if you breathe in through your nose and notice the air is cool and you breathe out and you notice the air is warm,
[: [: [: [:You know, setting an intention for some quality that you wanna carry forth out of your practice, like harmony, kindness, beauty, wellbeing, joy.
[: [:So, it's like, okay, I have the inner wisdom and I have the action, I have the inner wisdom, and I have the action. And so, I put little signs in my car, sticky notes everywhere, especially when you are beginning. Want to approach the world in a new way. You wanna have a new mind or a new heart as you move through your day.
Little sticky notes and signs are just wonderful. And if you don't want other people to read them, like you're at your desk in your office, put it in your little drawer that's right in front of you.
[: [: [: [: [:And inevitably it changes the whole feeling of the people around you and it spreads. Like it's really beautiful to watch, you know.
[: [: [:And when you are carrying a field with this high spiritual tone from your practice that you now love and do a lot, because it's so great, you don't have to have any discipline. You just show up on your mat. You carry this field out into the world, you'll begin to notice that the world is changing around you.
[: [: [: [: [: [:That's that, that is part of the world. And at the same time, you can stand in a clear tone of energy and light. You can just be neutral.
[: [:That's not what we're talking about here. It's something much deeper that comes from a much deeper well, and your contribution in the energy field might be order.
[: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [:And so, I love that we've brought that in. I think what we're gonna do now is turn to the rapid-fire questions,
[: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [:I may not sleep, but I give myself an opportunity to reset and rest. So, naps, they're my favorite.
[: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [: [:[00:51:04] Miriam: It Yes. Yes. Well, it's, it's, you know, people always say, well, what's the worst thing can happen? It's like, well, what's the best that can happen?
[: [:So now, cause, cause when you get in your car, right, you're in your car and you're. Your brain starts to go and it starts to click with all those things that you worry about or the things that you have to do, whatever.
And now I'm looking out sort of like Google glass. They have those weird glasses that they wanted people to wear for a while, It's my version of Google glass, and it's always the same message. What's the best that could happen?
[:[00:51:55] Miriam: You're welcome. Yeah, that's why I share it. That's a great one.
[: [:And yeah, please come and breathe with us. It's really wonderful. We have a, I try to do a, a short talk about something that's up for me, some kind of or something I've read that I wanna share.
We do our breath practice, and then we have a guided meditation of some kind. And the guided meditations are often about energy and sometimes they're about walking along the beach. So, you might get one of those where we're walking around Maui. So come on, walk with us.
[:The podcast is, I haven't listened to it yet, but I found it so I can go and start now. I know I need to start from the beginning. And I'm really looking forward to that. So, I invite you to take advantage of that. It's free. Go try it. Do you ever have anything, I know you're in Maui, do you do things locally there?
[:So, it's not just me talking to you. There is a whole group of us that are live being recorded live. So, there is an energy imprint that is very generous and open, makes it very easy to find the energy when you are meditating with others. Meditating along can be a bit of a challenge to find the energy. So, when you listen to my podcast, you are meditating with our whole group, very generous, very experienced meditators, setting a beautiful tone and energy for you to be part of.
[: [: [:Thank you so much for joining us today on Curiously Wise. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future fabulous conversations. And if you had any ahas, please share them in a review on Apple Podcasts so we can continue to pay forward the unique wisdom we all have.
If you want to know more about me or my intuitive energy healing practice Heartlight Wellness, please head over to my website. www.heartlightjoy.com.
Curiously Wise is a team effort. I am grateful for the skill and enthusiasm. Arlene Membrot, our producer, and Sam Wittig, our audio engineer, bring to this collaboration. Our music is Where the Light Is by Lemon Music Studio.
I'm Laurin Wittig. Please join me again next week for another episode of Curiously Wise. From my heart to yours, may your life be filled with love, light, joy, and of course, curiosity.
