pp17c Moving Emotions: Breath

2001_10_09 ; last update: 2002_08_08

"YHWH God formed the Adam
from the dust of the earth [adamah]
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life
and the Adam became a living soul."
(Bible, Genesis 2,7)

let Body breathe,
let Body move,
let Body sound.

Maryam, 2001/10/13

ROUND BREATHING
or
Conscious Connected Breath
or
Circular Connected Breath
or
Circular Breath
used in the method of
REBIRTHING

continuation of pp17

Gurdjieff  once met  a dervish:
Master, how should I breathe?
The dervish got furious at him:
How dare you to interfere
with so complex a system!
You throw it out of balance
with terrible consequences!

When I asked Paula the same,
I provoked the same reaction:
I gave you hundreds of  keys,
to re-balance  your breathing
with your ring muscle system,
but you never heard me once
giving you a key to breathing.

I took this to heart very much
and stopped Yoga techniques.
But my breathing already was
out of balance and  unnatural.

No amount  of Paula-Training
brought relief to my suffering.

But stimulating the ring muscle-breathing system
 together with the roundness of inhale and exhale,
 = making no break between breathing in and out,
 brings relief, as long as I awarely engage in both.

Here is a link to and a quote from one of many sites:

Conscious Connected Breath
used by Rebirthers in sessions.
It has profound healing and transformational qualities
when done properly with a Rebirther.
Can safely be done on own for short times
to relax and release stress.

[2002_07_05:
Relaxing and releasing is not MY goal!
MY goal is:
Accepting all my feelings
by breathing them with Body!]

1) Only to be done lying down and for just 15 minutes.
Further use of this breath requires the guidance of a trained Rebirther.
2) Begin with a full inhale into the chest through the mouth.
3) Without pausing or holding,
immediately allow the exhale to gush out of the mouth
without pushing it or holding it back.
A simple relaxed exhale.
4) Then without pause begin the inhale again, pulling air up into the chest.
5) Continue with a relaxed exhale as soon as the inhale stops.
This is also called the circular connected breath.
Meaning that it has no pausing in it at all, but is one continuous loop.

Maryam, 2001/12/23

The quote in the left frame,
which I put there right now,
"use your breath...
and in a very few sessions of practice
you'll be able to sense and move the energy"
frustrates and angers me
as always when Spirit promises,
(like with regard to judgment release)
an "easy technique".

I did as asked for months on end.
With no sensing, moving anything.
So I keep to my Round Breathing
which is appreciated very much
by my Body.

Maryam, 2002/01/23

Alexander Lowen, author of "Betrayal of the Body":
"Shallow breathing is both the cause and the effect of anxiety."

I don't like the word "spiritual",
nor the word "enlightenment",
despite Inge's and Garuda's explanation why they use it,
but I am happy that their "first step" relates to BREATH.

They share how they struggled to move
from shallow breathing to deep breathing,
an experience and process I identify with,
except that's not easy for me even today.

Whenever I am concentrating -
be it on a work or an interaction
I often stop breathing altogether,
until my pressured body gasps
and I - quickly - make up for it.

But lately I came to appreciate this pattern.
For the revolting gasps make me conscious,
not only that I need to breathe,
but that Body needs to MOVE,
be the movement ever so subtle,
for an exterior observer invisible.

I still want to remind myself of Inge's and Garuda's practical advice:

Maryam, 2002/02/03

So often did I hear about Ilse Middendorf.
But only today I understood her teachings.

In general "Breathing Therapy" follows three directions:
One - the student mustn't be aware of his/her breathing.
Two - the student willfully influences his/her breathing.
Three - "der erfahrbare Atem" of Ilse Middendorf:
"The Experience of Breath as An Art to Healing Yourself"

Breathing needs to be perceived or experienced.
 This is very much in line with Godchannel's info.

Link to a website in English:
Breath Experience

SB, 2002_07_02

...I have worked with Vivation and Re-Creative Breath.
Both are founded on the circular breath foundation
but each have very specific core processes.
Vivation is amazing!
... the creator of Vivation, Jim Leonard, ...

Vivation is about integrating all our feelings,
and it works by focusing all our attention
on the strongest physical sensation.

...
we are never trying to release anything,
or make something feel better or go away.
We are always coming into total acceptance for our feelings
without trying to change them.

Paradoxically, when we do that,
the feelings naturally change and evolve on their own.

... Every thought or feeling
will produce a corresponding sensation somewhere in our physical body,
and our practise is to be utterly and totally present with that sensation,
and the circular breath helps us do that.

We breathe in the feeling,
this can be understood as
"breathing into the feeling" or as "breathing the feeling" .
Maybe the second possibility is integrating the feeling even better?
including all the subtle nuances and changes within that feeling.
... We simply follow the strongest phyical sensation,
where ever that may be in the moment.

The process itself is made up of five elements or skills,
which we work to master every time we do a session.
1. Breathing (circular breath)
2. Relaxation (whole body is totally relaxed and available to the energy)
3. Awareness in Detail (we are acutely aware of each feeling
including the subtle nuances and changes in the feeling
4. Integration (this happens on its own when we apply the other skills, there is no trying involved,
it happens when we fully accept the feeling just as it is)
5. Do Whatever You Do, Willingness is Enough
( anything that happens in your session is perfect, and is ultimately contributing to your integration).

...I figure the less mental I am, the more effective it is for me.
So I like to keep it very simple.
Just breathe, feel, move and sound and let it happen~
Now when I do my own release process,
I kind of do a hybrid of everything I have worked with
and any number of things happen.
Some times I start singing,
some times I just get very still and quiet,
some times I get intense visions,
some times I just feel the energy writhing through my body.

2002_08_08

To Jim Leonard, Founder of "Vivation".

"A pupil of yours, Demian, taught me rebirthing in Berlin in winter 1986/7,
before you called your way "vivation". What is the difference?
I am also a pupil of the Right-Use-of-Will series and www.Godchannel.com
and my own website is based on these: www.empower.co.il/healingkiss.
The term "resolves negative emotions" , therefore, does not seem fitting.
Isn't your term "integration"?"

From Jim Leonard 2002_08_08

"The Vivation process has changed vastly since Demian taught you in 1986-7.
Mostly it has become far more efficient, meaning
that there is a lot more integration per unit of time.
Modern students often achieve an efficiency
of about one integration per minute after three days of training.

"Integration" is the preferred terminology, but it is only terminology.
"Resolves negative emotions" means exactly the same thing and is more
understandable by the general public.

"Please let me know any way at all that I might be helpful to you.

"With warmest regards,
JIM"

To Jim Leonard 2002_08_08

"As glad as I am that you answered at all, as shocked am I about the content.

"How can you measure integration?
And if you can measure "integration per unit of time"
and a student "achieves an efficiency of about one integration per minute after three days of training",
you must also be able to discern, define and describe,
what exactly has been integrated in that one minute, and in the minute after, etc. !

"If there is such a thing as the ideal student, it's me!
and after having trained for 16 years ,
and conceptualized all I experienced and understood,
I wouldn't be able to do, what you can do.
What's worse: I am not able to trust the rightness of this feat.

"I wished, you would have time for the exchange of thinking and experience between "peers".
But with your choice
of spending yourself in 30000 sessions all over the planet (also here in Israel???),
in a private praxis
and in personally answering probably hundreds of e-mails every day,
how could I even expect you to clarify exactly, what the technique is?
Because the "five skills" are not new to me and I certainly use them.

"I tried to enter your site, ....
But except for one page it seems to be blocked, at least to me.
... I entered Amazon and found 10 sample pages of your book "Vivation, the skill of happiness".
Every word you write there agrees with my experience and my understanding,
and in addition to the content I enjoyed the clarity and poignancy of style.
...

"But I still feel - [breathe, breathe, enjoy every detail...] - frustrated,
that I don't understand the difference between what YOU do and what I do,
which means, I cannot really learn anything new,
or deepen what I already know and do.
The way you describe your concept and skill
in those sample pages as well as in your letter to me,
makes me think and feel, that you have found the ideal and perfect way of
"Healing into Wholeness"
(which is my one and only commitment at this time of my life)
and if so, why do I even bother to work on my own site
and its "Puzzle Pieces of Moving Emotions Techniques"
and its "Manual" of "Moving and Evolving Emotions?"

2013-10-06 -
Jim Leonard did not answer to this (too complex?) letter.
But in 2005 I found a good article by him. See Learn&Live 17.

November 29, 2011