Foundations of Self-Mastery
Are you breathing correctly? Or do you even give it a thought? Don’t obsess over hand positions and foot placement if you’re ignoring powerful tools like breathwork. This oversight may cost you everything! Breath can be power, endurance, mental clarity, and much more.
Breath is sort of the bridge between our systems. It connects conscious choices to our body’s automatic functions and responses. Our breath can help us maintain ourselves through life, in mind and body. It can also help us recover from moments of overwhelming anxiety.
Watching people gas out in the early rounds is no fun. They’re likely not lacking cardio but maybe a sense of breath awareness is missing. Techniques literally suffocate under pressure without breath behind them. When breath is shallow and erratic, so is energy.
Differences seen in mediocre and extraordinary technique often come down to breath and body awareness. Power arrives when exhalation aligns in time with the body’s execution of action. Inhalation uses space and brings in fuel; exhalation delivers efficient focus and force. This isn’t so much mystical as it is a mechanical advantage.
Under extreme stress, breathing patterns change and fine motor skills begin to break down. Learn to recognize this signal as a warning and continue to breathe in. Breath holding, or not breathing, during training shows a learning opportunity as important as any technical flaw. This is where growth happens, but it requires energy, so one must breathe to succeed.
Progressive training usually follows stages: work static, controlled during basic movements, maintained during complex tasks and applied in varying levels of pressure testing. Gain deep understanding at each phase before attempting to move to the next. This same type of stage development can be applied to learning breathwork and other techniques or skills.
Our breathing patterns can impact and display our emotional states. Short, shallow breaths may signal fear or stress. Held breath reveals tension or hesitation. Forced breath shows frustration and anger. By changing how we breathe, we literally change how we feel and perform. But first, we must think about how we live and breathe now.
Do you know what it’s like to get winded or be short of breath? Breath is not just about oxygen, but about overall mental and energetic presence. When we fully connect with our breathing, we’re completely here and now. No future or past in mind – the breath takes focus.
In this moment, in this movement, we positioned ourselves in life, one step, and one breath at a time, to be here, and now. Are you still breathing? Take notice – were you breathing by choice or natural rhythm? If we look at function and our truth, what does an ideal type of breathwork look like to us?
