Edward’s Diary Entry 116: Cultivating Awareness 1 – Breathing

This is a good place to start talking about cultivating Awareness, because we are thrown out into the world from our mother’s womb and the first thing we do on this planet is start breathing… As our minds and bodies develop, this autonomic or unconscious process decreases in speed from some 30-40 breaths per minute for newborns down to 12-20 per minute for normal adults. A practitioner of Self-Awareness, when sitting quietly and focusing on breathing, may complete an inhalation and exhalation cycle, or one full breath, in as low as only 2 or 3 breaths per minute, which is quite easy for people who have worked with their breathing process, as for example in singing, chanting or playing a wind instrument.

This is a convenient way to bring greater Awareness into the body and mind. Breath accompanies us always, and it’s always available as a tool for heightened consciousness. It is the invisible media that connects us to the invisible universe of give-and-take between animals and plants. We are always connected whether we realise it or not.

Deep, relaxed breathing brings on a calm, peaceful state of mind. Shallow breathing is indicative of a turbulent mindset, as in crying, sobbing, anxiousness or flight-or-fight mode. Hyperventilation is hypertension. So obviously to bring greater Awareness into our bodies, focusing on deep, slow breathing is the first and foremost method.

Any even mainstream yoga class starts with breathing, or Pranayama. Here, we are not interested in theories and hearsay about “prana”, breath, or “ayama”, control, and all the different types of breathing. We are only interested in breathing as an object of consciousness or Awareness. During the day, at least 1 hour of yoga and various 15-minutes sessions of focusing on breathing provides indubitable benefits to health and gives us a chance to increase Awareness, bringing consciousness into activities that are otherwise mostly unconscious. Wherever unconsciousness is, that is where we focus our Awareness in everyday activities. Because we are working on the theory that the more Awareness is brought to bear on any situation, the more human we become and the greater our chances of living more fully.

In sleep we welcome oblivion. We “lose our lives”, our Awareness, during sleep for 8 hours a day (apart from a few REM sessions, with awareness only of self-invented dreams), one third of our life is gone already. So at least if we focus Awareness on our other activities for 16 hours, we are becoming what we are meant to be. Remember, if you live to 90 years of age, you’ve only lived 60 years somewhat awake – the rest was just oblivious sleep.

So during the day, focus on breath as many times as you can, and you simply can’t go wrong. Little do we realise the wonders of the breathing process…