No. 5 Modulating the Breath during Rebirthing Breathing

By modulating the use of the breath it is possible to maintain our consciousness in the space between being unconscious of our suppressed material, on the one hand, and its full – and uncomfortable – activation, on the other. It is this in-between state that offers the optimal – and most humane – conditions for achieving the integration of our ages-old pain and trauma.

The activation of suppressed material can take a number of forms. It can manifest as anxious thoughts about our current or future situation; as feelings of sadness or anger; or as physical sensations such as unaccountable aches and pains, coughing and nausea. It is into this energetic field, reflecting our life long history of trauma and upset, that rebirthing introduces us. But whilst rebirthing breathing activates our issues it also starts a process of releasing them. For the high levels of energy necessary for activation also provide a means to ‘dissolve’ long standing blockages. This process proceeds over time and depends upon the level of energy in the body and how often and for how long it is maintained. This is also the basis of such healing modalities as reiki and bioenergy.

With rebirthing breathwork the very high levels of energy that are used can also produce intense activation if we are not careful. Some schools of rebirthing do encourage intense activation but by and large this approach has now been superseded by a more sophisticated, more nuanced approach. The reason for this is that activation that is too intense will be experienced as threatening. This might cause us to discontinue our practice or to reinforce our shallow breathing and muscular tension in an effort to suppress the activated feelings. What constitutes ‘too intense’ will clearly vary from person to person. The other extreme would be to allow our breathing and hence our energy to drop to too low a level. In this situation the real issues that require resolution will lay untroubled beneath the surface of consciousness and continue to sabotage our lives!
There is therefore a need to balance our level of activation with our level of suppression so that we can continue rebirthing whilst maintaining our focus on our emotional activation. When we can do this, and it is an important part of the teaching and facilitation provided by a professional rebirther, that we can then start the process of reversing the muscular tension and shallow breathing that anchor self-limiting patterns of behavior in our bodies.