“Attend to your breath with an attitude of kindness and allow it to move freely and easily.”
One of the main tasks I’ve undertaken here on this Substack is to unpack these powerful, compact instructions.
“Allow… freely and easily” are operative words. They point to a potent natural process of letting go and letting be. A process beyond contrivance, beyond manipulation. The kind of power that wears ragged stones smooth after millions of years of oceanic tumult, the kind of intelligence embodied in a small cut that heals itself through unimaginably complex organic chemistry without a single thought from you or I.
But in the way of this naturalness we find a set of patterns of tension, defense, and habit. Ways of holding our breath so as not to contact the fullness of our emotional and energetic experience. Of course these patterns have deep value, and personal, historical import and must be respected, but it can also be helpful to have tools to gently press beyond them. To remind ourselves of the easeful fulness of breath that is our birthright.
I recently discovered a potent tool that uses effort in service of unlocking greater freedom. It’s a great arrow to have in the quiver, a complement to gentler methods I explore so extensively in this Substack. I call it Force to Free.
Last March I went to Dominica, an island in the Eastern Caribbean, with my best friend from childhood. We signed up for a weeklong “underwater meditation” course with Jeff Coulais, a former freediving world-record holder. What we thought was going to be a relaxing week turned into a marathon of starving ourselves of oxygen and shivering in cold water. I would rank it as one of the least relaxing vacations of my life.
One gem of a practice that Jeff shared with us is what he called “isolations” and what I’m calling here Force to Free. He had us deliberately expand and contract our breathing apparatus as much as possible. After doing this, when I returned to “natural breathing,” I found that there was much more ease and flow than before. I could feel my ribs easily opening to receive each breath, more of my body alive and available to the gentle flux. Smooth, soft, open. It was like the feeling of riding a bike when you’ve just cleaned and greased the chain.
Alternating periods of deliberate effort with periods of total allowance can help us discover deeper layers of ease, regulation, and flow. It reminds the nervous system just how freely the breath can move while respecting the body’s habitual holding patterns.
I now love using this myself and sharing it with clients and friends. In the guided meditation I’ll walk you through bringing breath into your lower, middle, and upper torso first individually and then, one after another. Afterwards you’ll be invited into a stance of pure observation. It’s all in the guided meditation at the end of the article.
I encourage you to use this as a complement to “natural breathing” and see what it unlocks. Nothing can match the elegance or power of natural breathing, but sometimes it really helps to give your nervous system a little nudge, a reminder of what’s possible, so that we can discover new layers of what it means to “attend to your breath with an attitude of kindness and allow it to move freely and easily.”
Force to Free — Guided Meditation
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