This month in Our Breath Mastery Training, we have been exploring the practice and process of Rebirthing Breathwork developed by Leonard Orr.
One of the first seminars in the Rebirthing program was called the Spiritual Psychology Seminar.” A central idea in Spiritual Psychology is the idea that “Thought is Creative.”
This means we create our experience of life and reality with our conscious and unconscious mind. And the principle is simple: positive thoughts produce positive results and negative thoughts produce negative results.
We learned that as soon as we change our thoughts and beliefs, our experience of the world changes, our reality changes. And so, in Rebirthing Breathwork we examine our thoughts and beliefs, especially those formed at birth and early in life.
In Spiritual Psychology and creative thinking, there are three principles:
- The Analysis Principle
Since my thoughts create my reality, if I look at my life, I can learn what thoughts I must be thinking (consciously or unconsciously) to create or attract such a reality.
- The Goals Principle
What kind of reality do I want to experience? What kind of life do I want to create? This tells me what kind of thoughts I need to think to create such a reality.
- The Affirmations Principle
This is the art of creating powerful thoughts—affirmations—which are like seeds that we plant in our unconscious mind to produce a desired result.
The first step to uncovering our unconscious thoughts and beliefs is a process called “Five Minutes of Uncensored Thinking.” I encourage you to take some time and do this work.
The idea is to observe your stream of consciousness for five minutes, and to write down every thought that passes through your mind. Keep your pen moving and try to catch every single thought that arises.
After five minutes, review the thoughts you captured and mark each thought that seems negative or limiting. Then create positive affirmations to reverse or neutralize any negative or limiting thoughts you hold.
Do this practice every day for a week or so to see how you can gradually process your unconscious mind. And develop your ability to create powerful affirmations to neutralize or reverse the effect of the negative and limiting thoughts that you uncover.
When we work with affirmations, we use a page with two columns: on the left is the affirmation column, and on the right is the response column.
We write the affirmation at least 20 times in one sitting. And we use our mind’s response to adjust and refine our affirmation.
When you work with affirmations, we make sure to use your name (or a nickname you had as a child) and write the affirmation in all three persons.
For example: “I Dan, deserve love. Dan, you deserve love. Dan, he deserves love.” We do this because we took on negative programming and limiting beliefs in these three ways.
And, if I begin with the affirmation “I Dan deserve love.” And after writing it, I have the thought: “That would be nice if it was true.” I will use that response to tweak my affirmation: “It is true that I Dan deserve love.”
Or if my mind reacts to the affirmation: “I Dan deserve love, my mind’s response is: “only if I am good.” Then I adjust my affirmation to: “I deserve love whether I am Good or not.” In this way we process our mind.
In Rebirthing, we talk about our “Personal Law.” This is the most negative or limiting thought we have. It is a deep impression upon which all our other thoughts and feelings are built or depend.
This thought is often unconscious and formed around the time of our birth. Since this is usually a negative impression or belief that goes against the truth of our being—our divine nature and our essence, we also called it our “personal lie.”
If we can uncover or identify this thought and change it, then all the other negative thoughts that it feed and support it will automatically collapse.
It’s like the game we play with dominoes where we stand them all up in a row. When we knock the first one down, we trigger a chain reaction, and they all get knocked over.
Every Rebirthing Session is an opportunity for us to re-parent ourselves. To recover from sins of commission and sins of omission that we suffered.
Another powerful exercise is what we call our “Purpose in Life Process.” It was created by Phil Laut one of the early Rebirthers. And this is another homework assignment for you!
It starts by making a list of all your favorite qualities, talents, traits, and abilities—all the positive aspects of yourself and your personality. (for example: generosity, patience, compassion, intuition, ability to listen, creativity, courage, etc.) Try to list at least 20 things.
The second list is a list of things you enjoy doing, things that you love to do. These are action words: teaching, traveling, listening to music, cooking, reading, gardening, hiking, praying, speaking, writing, problem-solving, dressing up, making love, etc. (Try to list at least 20 things)
The next step is to write down your idea of “heaven on earth” or your idea of “the perfect world.” It should be a small paragraph—about three sentences.
Now you are ready to create a statement of your purpose in life.
“My purpose in life is to use my _______, my _______, and my _______ (pick three personal qualities from your first list); by ________, and ________, and ________, (pick three action words from your second list); so that ____________ (connect it to your idea of the perfect world.”
For example, my statement might be:
“My purpose in life is to use my courage, my intuition, and my compassion; by learning and traveling, and teaching; so that I help to create a world full of peace and harmony, free of pollution and violence, and where everyone is free to do what they truly love and to become all they are meant to be.”
After doing this Spiritual Psychology work and writing out your “Purpose in Life” Do several rounds of 20 Connected Breaths. First in a very fast, active, and powerful way. Then do another set of 20 Connected Breaths in a very gentle, subtle, conscious way.
Go back and forth like this a few times and meditate on your energy before and after each set of 20 Connected Breaths. Make sure that you breathe with full body awareness. Make sure you are infusing every cell with breath-energy.
Then find a set of 20 Connected Breaths that bring together both active and powerful, yet gentle and subtle. Find that sweet spot that incorporates both versions of 20 Connected Breaths. And feel each breath sending a pulse or a wave through your whole body.
After some time, you will feel both energized and alert, and calm and relaxed. You should be buzzing and tingling… Do an inquiry… What do you think might be a possible consciousness factor related to your birth, infancy, or childhood? And then breathe about it… breathe into it.
Somewhere in the bible it says: “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind. These spiritual psychology exercises in Rebirthing Breathwork are very practical ways to accomplish this.
Good luck in your practice, and enjoy the process!
Love to all,
Dan
(Guchu Ram Singh)
February 2022
