“There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there’s another way; a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.” — Rumi

We have developed immensely powerful technology that has enhanced the quality of our lives. But we also have new challenges because our lives are so fast-paced. Our minds have so much to negotiate and interpret on a daily basis that it can become very stressful.

One thing that will bring more balance into people’s lives is learning to maintain a conscious connection to their breathing throughout the day.

Breathing is clearly important. You can survive a few days without water, even more days without food, but only a few minutes without breathing. As soon as your body stops drawing breath it becomes a dead body.

The word spirit comes from the Latin spirare which means breath. It’s the same root behind inpiration and respiration. Likewise, in Arabic and Hebrew the words for spirit, or the soul of the human being, are ruh and ruach respectively, which also mean breath. It seems that the ancient cultures understood that the innermost portion of the human being and the breath are intimately connected.

Our emotions and our mental states are connected to our breath. Have you ever seen someone who is very angry and about to lash out? You will see that they are breathing very shallow, and at a fast rate. If someone is feeling very sad, their breath will be labored, they will not inhale fully (like sighing all the time).

The good part is, the connection goes both ways. Our emotional and mental states effect breathing, but changing breathing can also change our mind and emotions. That’s why watching the breath is a common technique of meditation. If you can make the breath calm and regulated, the mind will follow.

If you are very calm, your breath will almost stop for periods of time. It will be very feeble and gentle. This is when you are enjoying inner peace because you are really settled down.

Here’s a challenge: Next time you go out into a setting where you are likely to encounter stress of any kind, like a crowded city street, or meeting with someone who bothers you, try to maintain awareness of your breath. This takes sensitivity and a subtle focus and will require some practice, but it becomes second nature after a while. If you do this, you will notice that when you encounter something stressful, it’s like a wrench has been thrown in your breathing mechanism. The normal flow and rhythm of it will get frozen or altered. But because you are already right there and you noticed it, you can continue breathing.

Another way of thinking about it, is to try to eliminate the pause in breathing, between inhale and exhale. Jolts and pauses in breathing rhythm equate to disturbances in mind or emotion. Learning to maintain a constant undulation of your breath will feel really good.

If you can start doing this, you will feel more intimately connected with yourself. You will develop more awareness of how you feel throughout the day, and so you’ll gain insight into how you really feel in certain situations or around certain people, and you’ll become more wise in making decisions.

I think with how much technology we have at our disposal, and especially with social media, people are becoming “divorced” from this awareness of their own vitality and center of being. Maintaining the connection to the breath is an easy, powerful and amazing way to stay centered and to cope with stress.