Breathwork & The Elements
What is Rebirthing Breathwork?
Leonard Orr, rebirthing breathwork’s founder, describes this technique as follows:
This technique ‘is perhaps the most valuable self-healing ability that humans can learn. We can not have disease and relaxation in the same space at the same time. Relaxation is the ultimate healer. Every breath induces relaxation. Therefore, breathing is the basic healer. Conscious Energy Breathing is the most natural healing ability of all. This ability involves merging the inhale with the exhale in a gentle relaxed rhythm in an intuitive way that floods the body with life enhancing Energy.
Watching this infinitely intelligent Energy move in our own body and mind is very magical, mystical, and miraculous. I never cease to be amazed by this work because it is the essence of Life Itself. ‘
http://www.rebirthingbreathwork.com/aboutrb/whatis
Rebirthing breathwork is an amazing tool for cleaning and re energising our body on a daily basis. Once we connect the breath and surrender, the breath forms its own rhythm clearing deeply seated suppressed emotions. Physical, emotional, and psychological healing is enhanced by infusing the body with breath/prana/chi/ life-force. A deep inner purification takes place to restore balance to mind, body and spirit. It allows you to be more fully present in your body, creating higher levels of conscious awareness, increased health and vitality and an overall sense of well being.
Following are some people’s experiences of this technique:
‘Each time I breathe I get to another level, another layer of the onion peels away. I feel real and strong – Wow!’ Sarah, Frome.
“I was gifted with the most beautiful experience of grace. I was held in a place of pure love and inner peace. Knowing that place exists empowers me as it is my direct link to Oneness and the vehicle that takes me there is the breath.” Karen, Glastonbury.
“I’ve gone through the worst depressions you can imagine. For me rebirthing has been the first and only method of fully getting in touch with my inner child and releasing the emotional blocks that I have carried all my life. It is unlike anything else I have experienced before, because it is not just stuff happening in my mind or some vague sensations in the body. It’s actually entering the deep hidden emotions; where the whole being, including the physical body, reacts to the emotional charges been released.” Veli, Finland.
Working with the Elements
After fifty years of research with Indian Yogis Leonard Orr created an elemental framework which he refers to as the owners manual for the human mind and body. Consciously working with 1. Mind – 2. Earth – 3. Air – 4. Water – 5. Fire – 6. Love – 7. Respect for the Saints – 8. Rest are simple practices that when applied regularly increase our health, happiness and success on all levels. They provide us with the building blocks to face life’s challenges with grace and create the reality we want.
Following is Leonard Orr’s summary of how to work with these eight aspects:
1. Earth purification: Earth purification is basically food mastery and exercise. Food mastery means to learn what our body actually needs, how much and how often. It means good nutrition and as well as fasting regularly to give our internal organs a rest. Vegetarianism is a basic requirement for mental and physical health. Having a personal exercise system is important. Walking, hatha yoga, or the five Tibetan rites are good systems. There are many other forms of earth purification like using crystals, hiking, gyms, percussion with drums, dancing, receiving body work like massage, manual labor, swimming, sitting in a forest, etc. Earth includes also our work, having a career that we love and winning the money game. It includes loving and creative service to people.
2. Air purification: You can heal your mind and body by consciously breathing Divine Energy. It is a wonderful tool, taught by good Rebirthers Breathworkers. It is easy to practice when you learn connected breathing and learn to breathe from the Breath Itself.The Breath Itself is the Breath of Life which is the source of Life – Divine Energy – to the body and mind. Conscious Breathing or Energy Breathing is a healing ability that makes people more spiritually self sufficient. Intuitive Breathing energizes the body and mind, it cleans the blood and the nervous system.
3. Water purification: Bathing twice a day is a marvelous spiritual purification practice that cleans and balances our energy body. It is best to bathe immediately after getting out of bed and it is valuable to bathe before sleeping. Knowing the quality of the water we drink is also important. Drinking enough contributes to good health. Most health authorities recommend drinking at least one quart of pure water per day. Check your water quality!
4. Fire purification: Understanding and using the spiritual power of fire to clean our energy body is as important to mental and physical health as food. Fire can burn away the causes of all diseases out of our energy body – our aura. Fire helps to clean our aura. Fire can burn away persistent negative emotions faster than anything.
5. Meditation/mind purification: Judging the quality of every thought as it flows through our consciousness, the Buddha called it the supreme technique of enlightenment. Learning to transform our negative thoughts into positive thoughts is a part of this technique. Meditation means to hold troublesome thoughts and feelings in our mind and work with them until we can transform them into harmony with the Truth. The mind is a powerful goal achieving mechanism. We must always consciously select a goal for our mind to work on. Reaching one worthwhile goal after another is success consciousness. Reading and memorizing the scriptures and great ideas is also a part of mind mastery. Mantra Yoga and prayer are great ways to purify our mind.
6. Love: Maintaining love and fun in all our human relationships is an important part of working with the elements. Love means spiritual community and spiritual family in which we give and receive support for spiritual growth and personal healing. Love also includes community participation and political responsibility. To express ourselves in community and participate in local, national, and international government is the practical way that we love other people.
7. Respect for the Saints: Sometimes we discover a very wise or good person. It is wise to spend time with these people and honor them and learn as much as we can from them. Learning from people may be the fastest way to learn. We learned negative emotions and habits from our parents as well as positive thoughts. Associating with people who are masters of what we desire to master is an important practise.
8. Rest: The Sabbath day principle in the Bible is a good practice, but it doesn’t have to be Saturday or Sunday. It can be any day of the week. To rest at least one day per week enables us to enjoy the other six days at least twice as much and to accomplish more. Knowing when to take a rest is a great secret to health and success. It is a continuous source of power, wisdom, pleasure, healing, creativity, and strength. Absolute rest is absolute power – nothing can resist it. Knowing when to rest and practice relaxation is an important point in our owner’s manual.
We learn the secrets of Breathing from the Breath Itself, we can only learn the secrets of fasting by fasting, we can only learn the secrets of fire from the fire Itself. We learn the secrets of water from bathing, we learn grace through devotion to God, we learn the secrets of the saints by spending time with them, we learn the secrets of rest by resting and we learn the secrets of the mind by thinking. We can only know life by participating. And it is important to be able to just Be!
Try experimenting with these simple spiritual practices, they may take a little effort to do, but they are simple and will not produce results for you unless you actually do them.
- Meditate on your energy body the next time you shower or take a bath and notice how different you feel before and after.
- Build a fire in your fireplace or a campfire in your backyard and notice how it changes your feelings. Just sitting with a campfire one to two hours can heal physical diseases. It will cure depression almost every time.
- Find an Energy Breathing teacher or Rebirther and do ten sessions if you’d like to experience a wonderful surprise.
- Fast on liquids for a day. Do enough exercise to enjoy your body and notice that you have a body. Get yourself in good physical condition.
- Read a page of scripture every day or experiment with a mantra
- Reach out to your neighbors with love and participate in a community meeting.
http://www.rebirthingbreathwork.com/node/38