Deep Breathing & The Breath of God
Deep breathing is the most common coping tool I share with my clients as a counsellor. It’s not because I think they don’t know what deep breathing is, but because I know most of us underestimate how much deep breathing can help and therefore we don’t even try. I will admit that I used to underestimate how helpful deep breathing could be. I had no idea how helpful of a tool it was until I began to teach my clients about deep breathing.
After beginning to understand from a knowledge perspective what deep breathing does for the body I decided to test it out. It was a day at home where I was feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated, so I went up to my room, laid on my bed, put my weighted blanket on top of me and began to take deep breaths. I decided to set a timer for 5 minutes. I remember imagining waves on a beach going in and out as took deep breaths. When my 5 minute timer went off, I felt like my arms and chest felt relaxed, but not the rest of my body yet, so I decided to continue. About ten minutes later, after practicing deep breathing for about 15 minutes, I could feel relaxation all throughout my body. This experience helped me to know and trust in the power of deep breathing for calming down. The interesting thing is that even though I did not fall asleep, I felt re-energized as if I had had a good nap.
This was when I really understood the importance of deep breathing, but deep breathing became even more important to me once I understood the spiritual significance it carries.
“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils and the man became a living person.”
When God breathed the breath of life into Adam, it didn’t just fill his lungs with air.
Deep breathing gives us the oxygen we need and continues to carry it through our blood stream to every part of our body. When you breathe in air it will first fill your lungs and then it will enter your blood stream in the form of oxygen. Once in your blood stream, the oxygen will pump through your heart and the heart will send the oxygen out to the tissues in your body that are in need of oxygen. It provides every part of our body with what it needs to stay alive.
God could have brought Adam to life by speaking words, like he did with the rest of creation, or with a touch of his hand, but he chose to breathe Adam to life, to pass on life from himself in order to bring Adam to life.
We are alive because of the breath of life that comes from the only source of life, which is God. God formed man and then breathed life into man, giving of himself, of his own breath, in order to create man. Then he followed this pattern through Adam to create Eve. He took from Adam, so Adam gave from himself just like God did, to create Eve. Then Adam referred to Eve as “bone from my bone, flesh from my flesh” (Gen 2:23). Through Adam’s DNA, Eve also received her life from the breath of God. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to say…
We are breath from God’s breath, life from God’s life, love from God’s Love.
We are created in the image of the Trinity, out of the love that the Trinity exists in.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.’”
When we connect with our breath (meaning we focus in on our breath to use slow controlled breathing) we are connecting with the life God has given us which overflows from the love of the Trinity.
Breath sustains us with life, just as water sustains the life of the earth. Breath flows through our body like rivers of water through our blood streams. The amazing thing about how God orchestrated our breath, and the way our bodies work, is that it doesn’t just provide physical life, it also provides emotional well-being. When we take slow deep breaths in the midst of stress, fear or pain, it sends a message to our body in the form of oxygen. It fills our lungs and then proceeds to be pumped through our blood streams in all directions to give the different parts of our body the message of “It’s OK, we are safe, we can relax.”
The physical benefits of deep breathing include muscle relaxation and relief of tension, feeling more energized, lowering blood pressure and heart rate and improving your immune system. The mental and emotional benefits include emotional regulation, deeper focus and concentration and an increased state of calmness and relaxation.
Deep breathing, when done correctly and with patience, has the ability to comfort our whole body physically, emotionally and spiritually. When we focus on God and the life that we receive from the Trinity as we take deep breaths, we are putting into practice what Jesus asks us to do in John 15; we are abiding in the Vine and receiving our peace, comfort, and belonging from Christ. In that space, with that focus, we are able to remember who God is and how that helps us in whatever we are going through in that moment. Then from that place of clarity we are able to seek God through reading scriptures or prayer, or worship and receive wisdom for what we need to do. When we don’t take the time to focus, breathe and center our mind on God, we will always choose the easier way to cope with our feelings, which can take many forms but generally results in a way of avoiding the feelings we need to process or taking out our feelings on others in a negative way.
If you would like to start practicing deep breathing for the benefits I have listed above, I recommend practicing it when you don’t feel like you “need” it. The times that we need deep breathing the most are usually the hardest times to remember what we need to do, and so our bodies automatically do whatever habit has helped us cope in the past. Aim to practice deep breathing throughout your day and make it a goal to continue practicing it until it becomes the habit you turn to when you are in distress. The good thing about practicing it throughout your day is that deep breathing will benefit you no matter what emotional state you are in.
If you would like to fully benefit from deep breathing here are a few important considerations:
1)Body Position
Your body will naturally feel safer in certain positions other than standing, which may be lying down or sitting on the floor with your back against a wall. By changing your position you can emphasize the message your deep breathing is trying to send your body. Learning what positions feel most safe to you is very helpful for deep breathing.
2)Focus
If your body is taking in more new information (sights or sounds for example) while you are trying to calm down, it will make it harder to convince your body that you are safe. As much as possible, try to restrict the input of new information. Different ways you can do this include finding a quiet space, using noise-cancellation headphones, or closing your eyes.
3)Time
The benefit of deep breathing is not immediate. It takes some time for this message to be received and understood by the rest of the body. When you breathe in air it first will fill your lungs, and then it will enter your bloodstream in the form of oxygen. Once in your bloodstream, the oxygen will pump through your heart then from there it will be sent out to the tissues in your body that need oxygen. This can take at least 5 minutes to feel a noticeable difference, but if you can do more than 5 minutes, you will feel even better!
Deep breathing is a helpful tool in emotional moments, but it also helps us to remember who our source of life is. I believe the practice of deep breathing is meant to be a life-sustaining habit built into our everyday life; connecting us to the only One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
