Breathwork is such a wonderful excuse for people to simply come together in love! And there’s no getting around it: when people come together in love, while putting aside all differences (which are only on the surface anyway), and choosing to focus on what is really most important (which can be clearly discerned by the heart), then the growth and healing that ensues, the awakening that occurs, is inspiring: literally breath-giving! Since my last report, more than fifty people have done private sessions with me, and nearly four hundred more have participated in the seminars and trainings in Urbino, Paris, Tallinn, Viru, Vilnius, Minsk, Moscow, Ufa, and Neftekamsk. On this tour, as usual, I gave all that I had to give to everyone that I met, and of course I received far more in return! This way of service to myself, others and life has to be the most rewarding and fulfilling work in the world! To be with people when they heal and grow… when they discover new and powerful resources within… when they drop years of stress and tension… when they resolve difficult emotional or psychological issues… when they awaken to ecstasy… causeless joy…the peace that passes understanding… or when they simply get rid of a headache or a back pain… Taking part in this—being a witness to it—it’s gift like no other! I feel so grateful and so blessed to be doing this work. And just when I think it can’t get any better, it does! So many people are honoring me and this work in such an amazing way: they are deciding to do the work with me: they are signing up to train as breathworkers and they are choosing to share Spiritual Breathing with the world! And everyone is doing it in their own unique way! This little exercise/demonstration has become a regular feature at our gatherings. We sit in a circle and we all point to the center of the circle. Everyone can see that we are all pointing to the exact same thing, and yet we are all pointing in different directions! What a wonderful paradox: and what an important lesson! We each have our own path to the same ultimate goal. We have to learn to honor and trust each other’s unique inward path. It is so easy, so tempting to walk someone else’s path, especially if that someone is great or amazing or holy or wise or famous; or especially if many other people believe that a certain path is the only one true right way. There is a seductive illusion of security in this. But the fact is: if you are walking someone else’s path, you are walking the wrong path! So in these breathing groups that I am privileged to facilitate around the world, we are learning to find our way along our on path, together! When we are free to be who we really are, and when we make it safe for others to do the same, the love that descends from above and arises from within, again and again, is truly amazing! I’ve been home for two weeks already and I’ve have barely begun to absorb and integrate all that has been given. After my stops in England, Italy, France, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, and Bashkortostan, there are just too many people to thank, so I’ll just get on with this essay. In many ways, genuine Breathwork—Spiritual Breathing—is in perfect harmony with the essence and the purpose of genuine yoga (especially as described in Pantanjali’s Sutras and the Buddha’s Teachings). Good breathworkers are like modern day yogis. They share a passion for enlightenment, self-realization, total liberation, and the end of suffering. Breathwork also satisfies the natural human desire for fun and excitement, comfort and pleasure, health and happiness. We want these things for ourselves and we want them for everyone else, because no one is free until we are all free: but if one of us becomes free, then we are all liberated in the process! I am focusing the next couple of newsletters on the basics of breathwork, on the “how to’s” and the “what not’s” of Spiritual Breathing. I am dedicating them to all the coaches, facilitators and practitioners in training around the world, and for everyone on the path of breath mastery. Breathwork is the intuitive art of Breath Awareness and Conscious Breathing. I call this practice Spiritual Breathing. So what exactly are we doing as practitioners when we are breathing with someone, or someone is breathing with us? We are practicing awareness. We are being present. We are working to remain centered—grounded in the source of our being. And from this place, we are giving the breather 100% of our attention. Pantanjali would say we are “fully absorbed” in the object of our meditation, or our heart’s desire. We are consciously generating an active all-inclusive unconditional energy of love and acceptance, toward ourselves and the other. We are breathing consciously, sensing our body as energy. We are remaining open and relaxed moment to moment, saying yes to ourselves, to the other, to life, and to “what is, just as it is.” We are experiencing our own sense of freedom, safety, faith, trust, peace, joy, equanimity. We are letting go again and again, so that each moment, each breath can be new, fresh, spontaneous and alive. We are being honest and open and real. Everything else follows naturally, perfectly. Natasha is a breathworker in Central Russia. She had become uncomfortable, afraid, because so many people with asthma and epilepsy were coming to her for sessions, yet she has no medical training. She found herself avoiding and refusing them because she didn’t know what to do—how to help them. “What if they have an attack during the session?” (What a coincidence that she struggled with these same feelings for 15 years while her daughter Julia suffered with debilitating asthma—that is until Julia healed herself with Spiritual Breathing!) No wonder people feel drawn to them both! My first reaction to Natasha’s problem was this: “Wow! What a great opportunity to heal and grow! You are already aware of your thoughts, feelings and emotions, and aware of your reactions to these things. So what to do? Welcome these people and these sessions. Simply encourage your mind and body to relax into the intensity of these feelings. Allow the acceleration to occur. Trust the process. With all this practice, you have the ability to breathe and relax with yourself and with your feelings. So coach yourself! As for the other person, simply remind him or her to relax and breathe in a gentle rhythm, allowing periods of rest, and taking regular sighs of relief. By keeping the other person focused on their breathing process while you focus on generating comfort within yourself, you create a space for your clients to do the same.” By working on ourselves while the other person breathes, we create movement and we create a direction for the energy of the session to flow. This is a natural result, and it doesn’t require that we ‘do’ anything in particular ‘to’ or ‘for’ the other person. Well she got it, and she did it! And now people are traveling to Neftekamsk (a city that most of us have never heard of), to breathe with her, and they are healing themselves in her presence! Witnessing this again and again, she has no reason to feel doubt or fear, and every reason to feel trust and certainty—in herself and in the process—making her presence and her coaching even more effective. What a miracle this work is! The key is awareness. So what are some things that we can observe during a breathwork session? This list comes from the practitioner group in Lithuania: Quality of the breathing rhythm: fast and full, fast and shallow, slow and full Length and time of inhale and exhale; speed, volume, rate, depth, breath sounds, odors Pauses, gaps, breaks, or changes in the breathing rhythm Locus and focus of breathing movement: high, mid, low Side to side, front to back, top-to-bottom expansion or inhibition Body breath coordination: (breath moving the body / body moving the breath) Amount of effort or ease, smoothness, shakiness, gasping, rushing Holding, controlling, avoiding, forcing, pushing Conscious vs. unconscious expressions, reactions Muscular tension, contractions, body movements, tremors, twitches Forehead, brow, facial expressions, eyes, (closed, open, focused, glazed) pupils Position and angle, and activity of head, jaw, lips, mouth, tongue, throat Adjustments of neck and shoulders, chest, spine, belly, pelvis Position and movement of hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes Skin tone, color and temperature changes, visible veins and arteries, pulses Overall state of comfort, focus, all actions and reactions, aura Energy movements, sensations, accumulations, releases, tingling, vibrations Not expressing, or over dramatizing feelings, emotions, desires, urges What do you do about the things you notice? Nothing at all! Or anything you want! But try this: simply allow your consciousness to take in all this information, let your system digest it. Trust your loving urges, engage your natural talents, apply your acquired skills, and simply observe the effects and the results. As you facilitate more and more sessions, these observations and your responses to them will accumulate into an intuitive knowing, which will generate the right action at the right time without you ever having to try. Use the time before and after the session for feedback: compare, contrast, discuss, explore, inquire, evaluate, assess, make decisions and set intentions. I begin a session with a sense of my own energy. Then I trust myself to be, to do, or say whatever comes to me in the moment. (Sometimes I wait.) I know my breath. I know how it feels and how it moves on its own, and I know how it responds to my conscious will. I observe subtle changes in myself, in my habits, pattern, and tendencies. And I have learned to link these changes to things I am picking up from (in) other people. I watch the subtle changes in my own breathing and in the other person’s breathing, especially when I touch them, hold them, or simply move in or out of close proximity to them. It seems to me that these changes are no accident, no coincidence. My breathing and theirs express and reflect otherwise hidden thoughts, feelings, emotions, energies, intentions, openings, urges, inhibitions, needs, desires, impulses, issues, challenges, etc., in me and the other. There are times when I am moved to say something, do something, to touch or physically move the breather in some way during the session, or I decide to put on a certain piece of music, or cover them with a blanket, or turn them on their side, or have them open their eyes. And after the session, the person says: “It was like a miracle! How did you know that was my favorite song? And you said just what I needed to hear at just the right time! You touched me in just the right place at just the right moment! God bless you!” And there are times after the session when the person complains: “I was in such a beautiful state. I was floating in bliss. I was talking to God! And then you told me to breathe faster, you touched my forehead, you made me turn on my side, and then you put on that stupid music! And you ruined everything! Damn you!” So in case you are worried about screwing up someone’s session, when you are not sure whether to do or say this or that, it may not even matter! I can say that even after almost 30 years of practice, I am probably “right” only half the time! But I think that’s pretty damn good! (Well ok, maybe I am perfectly guided and I do the right thing more often than not.) The point is that you needn’t worry about “doing it right.” Spiritual Breathing is a naturally self-governing and self-directed process. Everyone creates their own experience. And everyone will find a way to write you into their story no matter what you say or don’t say, do or don’t do. So if you want to avoid a lot of needless suffering, here’s a tip: Don’t take anything too personally! Thoughts, feelings and emotions come and go: and they are always changing. They are surface events, and they result from our conditioning. Who we really are in truth is open and free, unmoving, unchanging, and utterly unaffected by changing moods, states of health, or points of view. Here are some ideas that you and your clients would do well to consider during a breathing session, as well as in life: “Things aren’t happening to me: they are just happening!” “It’s not happening to you: it’s just happening! “This/that is just a thought! This/that is only a feeling!” “It is safe to feel all my feelings!” “Your feelings can’t hurt you!” “I am good, I am safe, I am ok, no matter what I think and no matter how I feel!” “You are good/safe/ok, no matter what you think, and no matter how it feels!” (“I/you are good/safe/ok, no matter what other people think or say, or how they feel!”) So lovers and friends of the breath, that’s it for this month. I’ll be sitting still, trying to turn our new house into a home here in Amarillo Texas for a while (where it seems the New Age has yet to dawn!). You can reach me by phone at: 508-345-7574. I am planning two more trips this year: One to New Orleans in mid November (looking for volunteers to help with the hurricane recovery efforts) and to do some “de-stressing” with fire, police and rescue personnel: “transforming stress and anxiety into creative energy and new possibilities.” And I’ll make another trip to Cancun, Mexico in the first part of December (instead of Chile), with a stop over in Florida’s West Palm Beach area. My 2006 schedule is practically full. It looks like we are off to India in January right after the first of the year. Do you want to take a quantum leap into spiritual consciousness and self-mastery, into new possibilities? The invitation and the schedule are open till the end of November, so contact me if you want to come. Through the spring, summer and fall, I’ll be visiting many of the old familiar places: England, France, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, and a couple of new places: the Ukraine, and Kazakhstan in April, I’ll go back to Italy, Argentina and Mexico. You are welcome to join us anywhere along the way. Things are accelerating. The work is getting higher and deeper all the time. Even very seasoned breathworkers report that they get more from one week of training in these cultural settings than from any other school or program in the world. And many new breathworkers are beginning to out-perform some of the leading practitioners, even trainers who have been at it for many years! One final reminder: The 1-Year Spiritual Breathing Program is open to professionals, practitioners, students and lay people as well. Through the program period, I promise to share with you every exercise, technique, method, process, form, style, and approach to breathwork I know. I promise to teach you everything I’ve learned about breath and breathing in 30 years of study and practice. And I promise to keep you abreast of all the new developments that continue to occur everyday along the way. You can enroll in the program for personal or professional development, to advance, deepen or expand your life skills, or to obtain formal international certification as a professional breathwork practitioner. The course involves four 7-Day Spiritual Breathing Intensives, which means local organizing, some travel (to wonderful and exotic locations around the world), home-study, self-practice, peer support, client work, reading, reporting, associate mentoring and supervision, and phone and email consulting. You’ve got two years to complete the program and two years to pay the tuition if you need it. Right now, the basic cost can be as little as $1250 (and even that is negotiable). This is the bargain of the century considering that many breathworkers earn that in a week! You can reach me at: danbrule@breathmastery.com or danbrule1008@hotmail.com My mailing address is: 3630 Brennan Blvd, Appt. 26-G; Amarillo, TX 79121 Telephone: 508-345-7574. Love and blessings, Dan Brulé Addendum to the October 2005 Newsletter I’d like to take this time to respond to those who have asked me what I thought and how I felt about the “Anti-Dan” campaign leading up to my visit to Paris. Yes it’s true someone in the French rebirthing community actually prohibited my organizer from advertising the event there. This person literally ordered those around her not to attend my seminars or to support my work. And she actually succeeded in getting some of her toadies to blindly kowtow to her demands! So how did I feel? In short: I felt hurt, then angry, then sad, then grateful. I was grateful to all the people who decided to attend my seminars and sessions despite her interference; and because they all had soft beautiful life-enhancing experiences; and because I received tremendous love and appreciation in return. I was also grateful because I had time to visit Geneva, and to breathe and relax in some warm water pools at the most beautiful resort spa tucked away in the spectacular Swiss Alps! I felt hurt at the ridiculous accusations and the obscene insinuations that were callously made. I was angered that this person felt the need to defend her turf, and to control and manipulate the people over whom she holds power and authority. And I was saddened that she feels it is her moral obligation to think and judge on behalf of others, and that she feels it is her right to prevent her students and clients from experiencing me, my work, or life for that matter—directly for themselves. It didn’t feel good to think that this so-called “therapist” believes that the adults around her are not smart enough, strong enough, or capable enough to explore love, life, the world, or even the art of conscious breathing on their own, without her protection, intervention, or her expressed permission. Lost in her snooty display of self-importance was the honoring of each person’s sacred process. Lost in her petty moral invective was the natural right of every individual to choose his or her own values, on their own terms, and in their own way. Lost too were the vital principles of self-determination, self-empowerment, and heart-centered living that breathworkers hold so dear. Perhaps it is this same attitude and misguided energy that explains why in Russia, where there are literally thousands of practicing rebirthers (it’s called “Free Breathing” there), that not a single one of them felt drawn to attend the Global Inspiration Conference held there this summer. (This same person wields power over the IBF.) After seventy years of oppressive rule, where political dissidents were confined to psychiatric hospitals, where promoters of liberty were sent to frozen gulags, maybe the free breathers in that country simply have no interest in supporting one more authoritarian regime, regardless of how spiritual, benevolent, moral, or ethical it claims to be. One lesson in all this for me is how quickly a psycho-therapist can become a psycho-terrorist when you don’t agree with her position! The sad fact is that even the best of intentions—which I have no doubt were at work in this person, and in the IBF at large— even the best of intentions in the best of leaders can degenerate into hurtful and spiteful actions when fear and ignorance and egos are left unchecked. And this episode just confirms once again that this so-called “code of ethics” that certain people seek to impose on the free breathing world is nothing more than a repressive tool for controlling others. It encourages stuffy insecure people to permanently mask their fear and uncertainty, and it allows oppressive small-minded people to cloak themselves in a counterfeit aura of “moral integrity” and fake “professionalism.” I apologize for this rather negative rant, but you asked me what I thought and how I felt! And I thank you for allowing me to vent it here. I feel very complete. And now that I’ve gotten it all out of my system, I can just drop it and forget about it! I don’t have to worry about it clouding my mind or dulling my senses, or causing me discomfort in the future. No doubt the drama will continue, but in this story I hold no grudges. There is really no one to blame and there is really nothing to forgive. We are all doing the best we can with what we’ve got. All this just leaves me more committed than ever to practicing the single most important breathworker ethic: unconditional love and acceptance; and it leaves me more committed than ever to my own chosen ethics of freedom and safety. I am more committed than ever to holding everyone, including myself, in the highest positive regard. And I am more committed than ever to practicing the healing power of forgiveness and gratitude. I don’t say this because I am trying to be “nice” or because I am trying to be “spiritual.” I do it because the cells of my body and my nervous system depend on the communication and exchange of pure life force energy—the transfer of information, in order for me to survive and thrive in a healthy and everlasting way. This vital information flows through a living “energy field” that surrounds and permeates the cells of my body, and it is made up of my conscious and unconscious ideas, attitudes and beliefs, thoughts, feelings and emotions, memories and impressions, intentions and aspirations, judgments and choices. Keeping this energy field (my consciousness) clear, soft, light, and love-filled, ensures that my life force will not be blocked, weakened, polluted, or disrupted, resulting in the gradual breakdown of my precious physical body. Spiritual Breathing serves to clean, balance and strengthen our energy body and our emotional mind. I am not going to sabotage this miraculous process by holding onto any hard feelings or negative thoughts, no matter how satisfying, justifiable, normal, or even necessary my ego takes them to be. Simply put, it would be self-defeating and self-destructive for me to generate anything but loving kindness and compassion in response to anyone or anything in my life. I’m not saying that it’s easy. And I’m not saying that I’ve mastered it yet. But I am saying that I choose to make it my conscious practice. And I am grateful for the opportunity here and now to make it my actual experience. Thank you all for your continuing love and support.