This past June, Croatian freediver Vitomir Maričić held his breath underwater for 29 minutes and 3 seconds! And that got me thinking about what this means in our own lives and what we can take away from this extraordinary example of human potential. And so I’d like to share some of my take-aways.
Vitomir Maričić’s breath hold doesn’t belong only to the world of sport. It belongs to an ancient lineage of humans who learned that breath is not just air–it’s leverage. Yogis used it to still the mind. Monks used it to survive the cold. Warriors used it to stay clear in combat. Modern freedivers use it to renegotiate the limits of oxygen and fear. Different aims. Same doorway.
Across all yogic, monastic, mystical, warrior lineages, some principles remain constant:
- Extraordinary states arise from awareness, not force.
- Awareness + breath + intention reorganizes the body’s stress response.
- High states are trained, not imagined.
- External pressure is often an invitation to reorganize internally.
- CO₂ alarm vs actual limits (discomfort ≠ danger).
- Limits don’t disappear–they get renegotiated by preparation and practice.
- Your first ceiling is often just your nervous system’s current alarm setting.
- Stillness is a performance skill.
Elite warriors across cultures did breath training not just to relax and energize, but to stay lucid in the face of danger.
- breathe too fast → panic, tunnel vision
- breathe too shallow → loss of power
- breathe too slow → dissociation
In yogic traditions, breath control (pranayama) was never about records. It was about prana regulation — life force — which modern language would translate as autonomic nervous system mastery. On a practical level, we develop vagal tone, CO₂ tolerance, interoceptive awareness, and prefrontal inhibition.
We do not use breathwork to override the body, but as a means of listening deeply to it. When the breath becomes conscious and coherent, the nervous system naturally reorganizes itself. From that reorganization, clarity, resilience, and depth emerge, and high states and extraordinary abilities actualize.
The point is not to chase altered states or accomplish extreme breath holds, but to discover that many “I can’t” moments in life are simply alarm signals, not actual failure or danger. And so, the practice is to sit with discomfort without distracting yourself with progress markers like keeping track of time.
The idea is to cultivate awareness in the presence of unusual or intense sensations, to soften reflexive stress responses, to stabilize attention without dissociation, and integrate conscious breathing into everyday life.
The extraordinary abilities—long breath holds, pain tolerance, superhuman endurance—are not the point. The real achievement is to enter and stabilize high internal states under extreme conditions.
The real mastery isn’t about entering high states — it’s about returning from them intact. Human potential isn’t about recklessness; it’s about discipline + safety + respect for biology. Mastery means staying present when your mind offers bargains and escape routes. If you can be stronger than your mind, you will succeed.
- Monks trained under strict supervision
- Yogis warned against unprepared kumbhaka
- Warriors progressed slowly, guided by elders
- Freedivers relentlessly emphasize safety protocols.
Every tradition that explored extreme states paired power with awareness. We can use this approach to manage our everyday emotional reactions. The intensity that breath holders learn to feel, relax into, and transcend, can be used as lessons that we can apply to our emotional life.
The idea is to allow emotions to arise without tensing, without holding your breath, trying to escape and without acting out. And then we find that emotional energy integrates or passes in a few of minutes
This is a valuable spiritual exercise: feel the emotion or passion arise without letting it hijack you. Override the pull of frustration, anger, jealousy, or greed, and use the breath to let the emotions pass through your body like waves.
Human potential isn’t about becoming superhuman, it’s about aligning heart, mind, body, breath and intention. That’s when abilities emerge that may look miraculous from the outside, yet they feel strangely natural from within.
Good luck in your practice, and many blessings on your path.
December, 2025
Breathmastery.com
