The Art of Breathing

This class offers additional practice to a group or individual enabling the 'rhythm' of a complete and conscious breath cycle to be ingrained into the consciousness. Deep internal shifts often take place in an individual in this class.

Cyrus’ Experience

For me, it all began with 'breath'. Laid up in bed, in my fraternity house in Los Angeles, in 1975 recovering from one of several severe knee injuries as a result of an unsuccessful surgery, I came across a book called Yoga and Health by Selvarajan Yesudian and Elisabeth Haich, (Published in 1953 by Harpers and Brothers, N.Y). After reading countless books in yoga, I can say without any doubt that this book is the finest book on Yoga I have read.

Within a few pages I was captivated. The style was as brilliant as it was poignant and the images of India comforted the obvious home-sickness I felt. Shortly, I came across a chapter called 'Prana - Life Force Energy'. My rational mind was straightaway hit right out of the park, my knowledge of science immediately brought me to question this viewpoint: that there IS something else out there, a constituent in addition to a collection of gases, and other information like radio waves, etc. – a constituent that represented the original source of existence, a subtle yet potent force. I was even more awed by the fact that every culture has a word for this, Prana being the Sanskrit word.  I started thinking:  'Hey, there is some real cool and powerful stuff out there that one can access through breath. And so I took a deep breath… nothing. But an idea had been germinated. And I like the ease of it. All I have to do is breathe the stuff in. Gees, what could be simpler?'

My bubble burst with the next chapter which was titled: Our Greatest Mistake: We Cannot Breathe. Whoa! What!  There must be some mistake, I thought, I mean it is breathing, for heavens sake, not rocket science. Determined to find out more, I read on and on. It dawned on me that if what the authors were saying is right, then indeed I was not breathing correctly, not even a little correct.

The reading gave way to practice, and I practiced and practiced and practiced. I took gulps of breath, imagining the Life Force Energy streaming into me. I choked and spluttered, became breathless when losing the rhythm. I persevered. It was funny to my fraternity 'brothers' and other friends. Soon they affectionately started calling me 'the breather'.

I did not observe much on the body, I was athletic and fit. What I did observe was the way my mind was changing. My thought patterns, the calmness, and most of all the insights that began to flow. I began to question my beliefs, not to discard them, rather to investigate the truth about what I was 'told'.

That journey continues today, and I am so deeply honoured to have the opportunity to introduce you to "Conscious Breathing – The Elixir of Life."

Silent Breath Study

This is 'a space' for those who have established a competence and love in the Art of Breathing and who choose to internalize their experience by simply observing the breath. Regular practice in SBS opens and expands ones consciousness.