We are nearing the close of our 2025 India Adventure. It’s been a profound Spiritual Breathing Training and Cultural Immersion Tour. These journeys are always intense. India has a way of stripping us down, inviting us to let go, while Breathwork offers us a way to flow with whatever arises.

This adventure has given us an opportunity to practice patience, to embody compassion, to live more fully, and be more present. Whenever a group of strangers comes together, living, working, and breathing side by side, differences in lifestyle, personality, and worldviews are bound to surface. Conflicts emerge. But it’s been wonderful to watch everyone lean into love, honesty, patience, and authenticity.

Over the past fifty years, I have written a great deal about the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of breathwork; for stress, tension, anxiety, depression, and pain management; for health and fitness, and for peak athletic performance.

I have published hundreds of articles about breathing mechanics, breathing chemistry, and respiratory physiology; about the use of conscious breathing for substance abuse prevention and intervention, addiction treatment, and recovery; for trauma release, and for awakening creative energy.

Things are heating up in the world, intensifying, accelerating. We are moving toward another major event, and a long overdue shift in consciousness. Some of it is due to advances in science and medicine, the increasing use of AI, as well as world politics.

Can you feel it in the air? Can you feel it happening in your own work and life? Whether you are a total newbie to Breathwork or a seasoned pro, it’s time to take your practice to a new level.

This month I invite you to practice the first and most important step toward Breath Mastery and Self-Mastery, and that is Awareness.

I invite you to become more conscious of your breath and your energy, of your body, and mind, your feelings, sensations, and emotions, of your actions and reactions, and your choices.

Breath is the very Spirit of Life that flows in you and through you. Are you aware of this? Are you conscious of it? Rudolf Steiner once said: “We live with our soul in the breath.” Think about that.

Recently, we have been focusing on breathing not just as a biological function, but as a divine gift, as a spiritual discipline. We have been focusing on using our breath to open the heart, create inner stillness, and deepen our connection to ourselves, each other, life and the world.

So this month, I want to invite you to give your relationship to the breath more attention and appreciation. With all that is happening in terms of digital technology, AI, virtual meetings, political divisions and religious wars, it is more important than ever that we use our breath to raise our consciousness and to deepen our spiritual connections.

This month, I invite you to practice a 5-part Prana Yoga practice. It’s a very good way to start your day, and it also makes for a good evening practice. The idea is to do Alternate Nostril Breathing. But before you do, build up some energy to work with.

1. Start with Breath of Fire (Kapalabhati Pranayama) to activate energy in your root chakra and your dan tien or hara. Do this to prepare to raise your energy up into your skull.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone who has done a lot of deep dive breathing sessions that the Path of Breath Mastery is a Path to Ultimate Freedom.

Breathwork is about connecting to our source and to the spirit of life within us and around us. It’s about awakening our natural healing and creative energies. It’s about getting to the essence of things, and excelling at those things.

We have been doing more work in the California prison system lately, breathing with hard core criminals, jacked up former gang bangers, violent offenders and death row inmates. And the healing, growth and the heart openings have been real and powerful.

Witnessing this has renewed my love and awe of the human spirit, of breathwork, the power of the heart, and simple human connection. It has also reinforced my belief that, as Jim Leonard used to say, “willingness is enough.”

It is estimated that 60% of people in this world are living with unresolved traumas of one kind or another. I think it’s more like 90%. And so it makes sense that the treatment of trauma and the recovery from trauma has become an extremely important focus globally.

And breathwork—conscious breathing—has emerged as one of the most effective methods and as a main element in many if not most trauma treatment and recovery models.

We are into the season of cheers and goodwill, of holiday greetings and blessings. A time when people wish the best for families and friends, and even strangers. And a time when everyone prays for peace on earth.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could keep these holiday wishes of love and peace and joy alive in us all the time? Wouldn’t it be nice if the cheerful gift giving and warm-hearted wishes were part of our everyday way of being? If only the Spirit of Christmas was an everyday affair!

I was on a breathing call with Tony Robbins recently and he reminded me of a talk by Jim Rohn called “Five Steps to Go From Average To Fortune.” It got me thinking about how his advice applies to the journey of Breath Mastery. So this month, I’d like to share some of those thoughts.

This month I’d like to share with you some of the Spiritual Breathing exercises, techniques, and meditations our group has been practicing as we travel through India.

And I’d like to start with mantras. Mantras are words or sounds or phrases that are repeated or used for meditation and as part of various spiritual practices.

They work to quiet and focus the mind. And in many ancient religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, it is believed that they carry vibrational energy that can uplift, strengthen, or soothe spirit, mind, and body.

Leonard Orr, the father of the Rebirthing-Breathwork movement, my dear friend and one of my favorite teachers, once said that the greatest skill or art in life is:

“Learning to merge the outer breath which is air, with the inner breath which is Spirit.”

There is a knack to mastering this art, and it involves combining peace and power. It means breathing in a powerful way while being completely relaxed, and being completely relaxed while breathing in a powerful way.

I recently presented at a beautiful event called BlissFest, together with John Gray, Reena Jadhav, and several other amazing heart-centered presenters.

It was a sold-out fundraiser for FreeMeals.org. And it took place at the Firehouse Theatre in Pleasanton, California.

I also worked with a group of inmates at the California Correctional Facility in Vacaville. It was a very intense experience, and deeply inspiring.

Winter is fading and spring is right around the corner! This is a good time to focus on your inner work. My friend and teacher Leonard Orr used to say: “It’s ok to take a break from the self-improvement business now and then.”

And it’s also necessary to remain focused on healing and growth, personal, professional, and spiritual development. A every now and then, we need to dive into it with everything you’ve got!. This is especially true for life-long learners. And I assume that’s you!