What is a perfect breath? Far from being some noble yet unreachable goal that takes years of rigorous practice to master, a perfect breath is any breath you take for which you are completely mindful and aware. In the space of that one simple breath, great things can be accomplished. Perfect breathing is absolutely attainable, and within easy reach. In fact, your very next breath can be a perfect breath.
With this book, we hope to accomplish two things: Raise your awareness level about the power of your breath and the benefits it can bring you, and teach you conscious ways to use that awareness. Step by step, section by section, we will show you how to harness that power, to be mindful of each breath, to use that here-and-now presence to great advantage.
Each section contains valuable information that applies to significant areas of your life—your health, mind and emotions, performance and spiritual experience—to help you understand the scope, breadth, and influence of breathing. Throughout the book, we refer to the understanding of breath and breathing in various ways, as being aware, conscious, mindful, and intentional. While there are subtle differences in approach and technique to each one, they are nearly synonymous for the purposes of your pursuit of the perfect breath. Each is meant to convey that when you know you are breathing (i.e., when you’re breath-aware), you can begin to exercise control over it; and therein lies the power.
Nearly every chapter contains simple exercises that you can begin practicing immediately, all with instant and direct benefit to the four dimensions of life—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—including your ability to heal, your physical performance, your mental and emotional well-being (including the effects of stress), and your personal quest for a deeper sense of spirituality. We’ve also included a comprehensive appendix that serves as an easy-reference catalog of those exercises as they pertain to specific areas of your life.
Our purpose in presenting this information is to provide you with everything you need to begin this journey and discover for yourself this “secret weapon” that should no longer be kept secret. In the following pages you’ll find inspiration in the stories of masters from across the planet, motivation in cutting-edge science, and a world of potential in the techniques that you can start using today. You will find a connection to your life, a spark of recognition and understanding that will provide a jumping-off point to a body of knowledge that can literally transform your life as it has ours.
In Part Two, “Your Perfect Breath,” you will find a prescription for learning to develop “breath awareness” and the way to find your perfect breath. This is a vitally important section of the book as it will provide you the foundation you need to take full advantage of the information and techniques in the subsequent sections of the book. In designing this program we have assumed that between work, family and the thousand other things that fill up your days, you don’t have an extra thirty or forty minutes twice a day, or even several times a week, to take on a new practice or discipline. That is why our program is designed to be integrated into your daily life with a commitment of mere minutes, allowing you to start taking full advantage of your breath to improve those four dimensions of living and your overall quality of life.
Then, once you’ve become breath-aware and begin to make those techniques part of your daily routine, you’re ready to complete the cycle and begin employing them in all facets of your life. The subsequent sections of the book look much more deeply at how the conscious breath and breath work influence each of the four dimensions and how they can be used to specifically improve those areas.
If there is just one thing that you take away from this book, we hope that it will be a newfound awareness of your breath, of the tremendous potential that exists for each of us. With the planting of that one small seed, you may find that more and more it will become a part of everything you do, and that it is always there when you need it.
Let your next breath be a perfect breath.