The Swinging Door
Yogis and spiritual aspirants of all sorts have known for ages that breathing is the key to expanding consciousness and understanding. But it is only with the advancement of modern science and anatomy that we are beginning to understand why this is the case. Did you know that breathing is the only function in the body that is innervated by both the involuntary and the voluntary nervous systems? This is the reason why one can allow the breath to move on its own or choose to voluntarily, consciously engage the breath.
This interesting situation of the breathing mechanism allows it to bridge the gap between the voluntary and involuntary nervous systems… and in other words to bridge the gap from conscious to unconscious. This explains how Yogis (to use the term broadly) and meditators have demonstrated incredible control of the autonomic “involuntary” processes in the body. Able to change heart rate, blood flow, peristalsis, and even emotional valence at will, these remarkable individuals have used their breath to ride across the chasm separating conscious from unconscious.
This is certainly the case even when one practices Hatha Yoga or does emotional work. In the most gross example, someone may learn how to rotate their pelvis, a movement that in its subtlety is quite often “forgotten.” Or perhaps someone overwhelmed with anger or fear, taking a conscious breath, may gain the perspective to control their emotional response.
This leads to an interesting observation: the breath swings both ways. If one brings more consciousness to the breath, awareness expands. However, if the breath is repeatedly “forgotten,” then more and more “voluntary” processes may become unconscious and involuntary.
In the case of the musculo-skeletal system, all of our muscles and joints fall under the somatic or “voluntary” nervous system and should in theory respond to our commands. However, we all know that when stress congests our muscles, we very often loose the ability to relax them. (If you are not aware of this phenomenon, simply tell a person with a chronically stressed condition to “just relax” and get ready to duck!) Why can we loose control of the muscles of our supposedly voluntary nervous system? Because they are no longer voluntary — the avoidance of processing stress (which occurs through breathing) has in effect made one more unconscious.
This also applies to emotional response. When one persistently allows emotion to overwhelm and control one’s actions, this process becomes automatic. We have all known people who simply cannot control their emotions or who have uncontrollable tics. On the other hand, if consciousness and breath are repeatedly brought to emotion, that emotion can still be active but one is not controlled by it. “Difficult” emotions are simply ones that challenge us to be conscious of them. With sustained practice, positive emotional states can be cultivated and entered at will (there have been extensive studies on Buddhist meditators who have changed their brains by cultivating compassion).
When you do things robotically, you become a robot. But anything done with awareness of breathing becomes more conscious. This applies to not just our bodies, but to our emotions and our minds. The boundary between what can be known mastered and what is involuntary or unconscious is not so clear anymore.
As Zen master Shunryu Suzuki says on breathing, “What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door that moves when we inhale and when we exhale.”
