 Haya! In the past few weeks, we've talked about breathwork a lot, the breath of life, the breath of death and resurrection, and not to mention the breath of ascension, which, spoiler alert, it's what happens when you put the two other breaths together. That was the breath that allowed me to create my markaba, but more on that later. Honestly, I just wanted to appear to you for one moment to espouse the blessings of breathwork, show you why it's one of the best things ever, and what you'll get from practicing it. The term breathwork encompasses a variety of practices that involve regulating the flow of breath to create balance in the body, as well as stimulate mystical or spiritual experiences. This is believed to be because many forms of breathwork, such as the Wim Hof method, actually causes endogenous DMT to be created inside your brain and body, causing many people to have mystical experiences during or after a powerful breathwork session. It probably goes without saying. The concept of breathwork goes back thousands of years across many cultures. Even you've probably heard of pranayama, a Hindu word that basically means regulation of breath. In fact, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna specifically describes that regulating one's inhale and exhale is considered a divine offering to connect with brahman, the supreme absolute reality. Some offer the forces of vitality, regulating their inhalation and exhalation, and thus gain control over these forces. Today, breathwork is beginning to be studied and understood more in science as well. And there's a lot of practical benefits alongside just becoming one with God, which in and of itself is a pretty practical benefit. Breathwork is known to make it easier for our mind to slow down, to create mental clarity, to create an emotional settling and balance, and to receive insight that we might have been blind to before. It also helps reduce stress greatly, focusing the body and resolving problems associated with chronic stress. It even helps reduce blood pressure by eliciting the body's relaxation response, and some more powerful methods of breathwork, such as holotropic breathwork, which is often performed with an instructor, has been shown to support addiction recovery and cathartic release of stress and trauma. And if you think that's amazing, we're not even done yet. Breathwork helps treat depression, anxiety, and PTSD. It helps train mental focus and discipline, and even helps you to become detached from your physical pain reactions to extremes. Did you know that Wim Hof climbed up 7,000 meters up Mount Everest in shorts? And the only reason he didn't go any further was because of a foot injury. That power that he has, he says everyone can do it, and it all comes down to the breath. So why does this work? Well, on a physical level, you're releasing CO2 from your body and bringing in a lot of oxygen at once, which is said to make you a bit high, as well as alkalize your blood pH. But the wise masters of the ancient world saw things not as physical substance, but the byproduct of energy. To them, breathwork was the way to fill your body with pranic energy because prana, or life force energy, follows the breath into the body from the higher self. In this, breathwork was a spiritual practice to create cohesion between body, mind, and spirit, which created a strengthening of one's character and overall well-being by anchoring one's physical existence with their higher spiritual existence. And not to beat the horse too close to death, but if you recall, the word spirit actually has its etymological roots in the word breath. So by doing breathwork and regulating your breath, you're basically doing spirit work and regulating your spirit. Or maybe it's better to say that you're orienting yourself to your spirit. In this, I think there's a hidden special benefit to breathwork, which is that it's very valuable to people who might be curious to have a mystical experience, but aren't as interested in or ready for shamanic plant medicine or psychedelics. And on that note, are there any downsides or dark parts of breathwork? The answer might be what you expect. For the average person, not really. But if someone is having respiratory issues or taking medication that might make them dizzy, or other health issues like this, it's really advised to do some extra research and get some guided instruction from a trained instructor to help you on your journey. Remember, there's a breath for every occasion. So whether you're doing long, deep breathing or rapid inhale and exhales in fast succession, trust your intuition on knowing how your best called to breathe. So you see, breathwork is awesome and everyone should do it. Well, almost everyone. That's it.