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.
I have focused on breathing exercises, techniques and meditations that trigger changes in brainwaves, open the door to non-ordinary expanded states of consciousness, and enhance neural growth, neuroplasticity, and increase psychological and emotional resilience.
By controlling our breath, we can control our life force, and we can awaken and manage our ‘inner fire’. We can get into the flow state, and we can trigger a beautiful and soft soul awakening.
Recently, we have been focusing on moving from control to surrender, from doing to being, from breathing the breath to being breathed. When we learn this, we open to a vast ocean of consciousness and an extraordinary, ineffable experience.
As breathworkers, we can be midwives to transformation. In fact, the modern generation of breathworkers that I lead are transformational change agents. Our job is to support, encourage, and contribute to personal and planetary awakening and evolution.
By encouraging and deepening body-centered awareness, we create a sense of inner freedom and safety, and we guide ourselves and others with gentle curiosity rather than pressure or judgment.
By learning to breathe into hidden spaces in the body or areas that are frozen or numb, we create new neural pathways that become the foundation for higher states of consciousness and extra-sensory abilities.
Good breathwork leads to finding expression for realities that are beyond the self–or what Alan Watts called ‘skin encapsulated ego’. We are able to witness things without needing to interpret them.
As we practice what we preach, more and more we are able to understand ourselves and each other while also honoring the diversity and mystery of life. And more and more, we are able to articulate a growing intuitive knowing.
Breathworkers need to get better at creating conditions where personal meaning and collective wisdom can emerge. And breathing together in a group creates the possibility of a deeper connection.
The amplified field created in a group breathing session has the power to move us from feeling isolated to a sense of belonging, from the personal to the universal, where unexplainable, even miraculous healing and growth can occur.
Breathwork allows us to explore levels of ourselves and aspects of life that science cannot touch. It opens in us certain states of peace and being that defy description, definition, understanding, or explanation.
Good breathwork connects our intuition with our intellect, leading us to confident integration and embodied awareness. It also burns away any self-doubt or social resistance that undermines our natural inherent abilities and capacities.
Breathwork teaches us not to seek love but to uncover the barriers that we have built against it. It teaches us to trust our natural rhythms and flow, so that the breath itself becomes our guide and companion on the path to awakening. And breathwork allows our ordinary everyday life to become a never-ending spiritual retreat!
If you want to dive more deeply into navigating extraordinary experiences, I suggest you listen to the presentation that Iya Whiteley did for the E3-Alliance Conference. I drew a lot of inspiration from it, and I think you will too!
Wishing you love, peace, joy, and abundance.
Dan (Guchu Ram Singh)
August, 2025
Breathmastery.com
Loved this, especially the shift from “doing the breath” to “being breathed.” That framing dissolves so much effort and lets awareness expand on its own. The idea of breathing into the “hidden” or numb places in the body really landed for me, too—it feels like making new pathways where attention hasn’t walked in a while.
I’ve also felt the power of the group field you described. There’s something about synchronized breath that turns isolation into belonging and turns insight into action.
One question I’m sitting with: what’s your favorite 60–90 second micro-practice to move from control → surrender in the middle of a busy day? I’d love a go-to pattern I can use between meetings to reconnect with that sense of being breathed.
Thanks for this clear, grounded invitation to explore deeper.