Greetings to you, our
partners in healing. We wish to share with you
today one way in which you can use breathing to
connect and attune yourself with someone you
know. In so doing, healing takes place and
differences can be resolved energetically. Most
people will find tandem breathing to be
educational also.
Before we share the
activity of tandem breathing, we wish to let you
know how and why it works from an energetic
perspective. Breathing is a common experience.
Regardless of where you are from, what you
believe or how you feel, if you are human you
must breathe. Breathing transcends barriers of
language, of perspective, of age, etc. It is a
basic way in which we interact with our
environment, an energy that constantly exists.
Since energy is a current, breathing can be
thought of as a common currency that connects
people.
How a person breathes says
a lot about them. Breath is one way we nourish
ourselves. It puts us in a specific energetic
state with certain consequences/results. We
manifest with our breath all the time, mostly
unconsciously. Since breath is a common currency
by which we interact with our environment,
usually without our awareness, and since it
manifests for us effortlessly and easily, it
helps to become conscious of how we use our
breath to support ourselves and our lives. All
our breath supports us, even if we judge what we
end up creating.
As humans, much of what is
learned is in relation to our environment and
that especially includes other humans. Some of
this learning is comfortable and feels easy,
some not as comfortable. Other people can see
those things in us that we prefer to avoid or
not deal with. This pushes our buttons. Where
there are differences in perspective, our coping
mechanisms come into play to defend us and
learning becomes more difficult. This is true
for those larger conflicts and also for subtle
differences. Tandem breathing is a way to
understand the other person by mirroring their
experience. It is also a means of understanding
how you work together. It is excellent for
understanding the process of giving and
receiving, leading and following.
To do this exercise you
need a consenting partner. Both people need to
make themselves comfortable and should be in
hearing range of each other, preferably in the
same room next to each other. The basic process
is this: as one person inhales, the other
exhales. The person exhaling needs to do so with
a sound so that the other person easily knows
when this is happening. Do this activity for as
long as you choose. The learning in tandem
breathing comes from the process. Notice the
process of the breathing. There are things we
could point out about the process and what to
look for, but that would detract from the
experience. We want you to notice for yourselves
what happens as you do tandem breathing.
After you are finished, it
is advisable to share your experience with your
partner. Share what you felt and noticed about
yourself. Allow your partner to do the same.
Talk about how it was to breathe with the other
person. You are breathing each other. Tandem
breathing is a way to become more aware of this.
