Bliss begins with the breath. We breathe in, and accept all that is new. We breathe out, and release all that has passed.  When we breathe deeply, we have the potential of attaining the same trancelike euphoria found in meditation, prayer, chanting, ecstatic dance, kirtan and by listing to particular kinds of music. 

Yet we don't have to do this in a yoga room, on a massage table or in meditation. We can achieve this blissful state anywhere, at any time.

One method of reaching the euphoric state is through the technique of The Calming Breath, said Dr. Steve Koc, a long-healer and practitioner of Kundalini yoga. To begin the Calming Breath, sit down, close your eyes, and start breathing long and deep, in through the nose. Fill the belly, fill the chest with air, and hold it for a while. Then let it out slowly and fully through the nose – hold it out. Remember, you hold the breath in, but you also hold it out; both are important. The key is to slow this cycle, to slow down your breath rate.

You can do this deep breath anywhere. In line at the post office, sitting in traffic. "They say 'wherever you go, there you are,' but what's also true is that wherever you go, there is your breath," Dr. Koc said.

The way to use the Calming Breath to reach bliss is to practice techniques frequently and regularly, so that your body, musculature and glandular system get used to being in that state, he explained. In this way, when you come across a situation that causes anxiety, you can mechanically begin the breath technique, and your body will instantly revert to that state of deep relaxation.

"It's the concept of nerve accommodation," said Dr. Steve Koc. "The nerves fire off easier every time you use them; that's how habits get formed. When we are training the nervous system with a new breathing technique, the muscles and nerves learn the pattern; they will reach it faster and more efficiently each time."

To slow the breath further actually causes a shift in your body's hormones. Start by breathing 6-11 breaths per minute, to give your body a chance to incorporate the change. Then, slow down to one to five breaths per minute, with one breath cycle being an inhale, hold in, exhale, hold out. "This will create the physiological and psychological response of the meditative state," said Dr. Koc. "It's very restorative."

The result of this carefully slowed breath is that the glands release, the muscles relax, and the parasympathetic nervous system becomes dominant, as opposed to the sympathetic system.

"The sympathetic is our fight or flight system, the adrenal based system of our body chemistry. It rules nervous excitability. The parasympathetic system is the at-ease state, the relaxed state in which your body does self-healing and rejuvenation. It's the way you feel right before you drift off to sleep, the feeling of peace and calm you get when you are in nature, or when you are day-dreaming," said Dr. Koc.

If you can slow your breath with the Calming Breath, you will be able to get near to, or actually within the parasympathetic state, where your body does self-healing.

Breath of Life, Breath of Death

"We talk about the idea of holding the breath out," said Dr. Koc. "This is the place of no breath at the end of your exhale. It is the opposite of what you do when you hold your breath in."

"The ancient yogis have said that by mastering the practice of holding the breath out, one can master the fear of death, or failure. By mastering the practice of holding the breath in, one can master fear of life, or success," he said.

"It's strange, but many people are more afraid of success than of failure. They are more afraid to really live fully, then to live a deadened life," Koc said.

Many of you were up in the wee hours (depending upon where you live) in meditation or prayer, being a part of the global energy that is the Solstice.

We'll be celebrating more today, on my radio show at 11 am PST, if you'd like to call in or comment. http://www.sarawiseman.com/radiofree-podcasts.html

The point of this day, December 21, 2012 is not about apocalypse, or world ending. These things might have happened; but during this glorious turning of darkness to light, they did not.

We awoke or were present in a beautiful, gorgeous, rich experience of energy that was not just where you live, but celebrated all of the world, as people everywhere, celebrated the Light.

The Light we are in awe of is not just the physical light of dawn. It is collective Light, as we join together in ways and numbers that our planet has not seen before. Tens of thousands of souls, millions of souls? We don't know who's involved, but there are many more than in the past centuries; many more souls adding to collective energy of Light and Love.

It is also an internal shift, as you personally let go of all that you did not want to keep, as you moved from yuga or epoch of Kali or darkness and into era of Satya or Age of Truth.

These shifts: the internal, the communal. OUTSIDE OF ALL LAWS, RULES, RELIGIONS, are a new way of human beings stepping forward to join together, for Peace, for Love.

This is a first, folks. No teacher, no master, no guru. Just all of us claiming the Light as our OWN, and as the right and core of each other.

When we look from this Divine/One/All view, we are able to change the world, much faster than working in old methods of laws, rules, punishments, etc.

Thank you, for your part in Solstice so far. Continue holding the energy for yourself and for each other.

Much love,
SARA

Nature has an extraordinary way of celebrating winter. If you live in the Pacific Northwest as I do, the spicy scent of cedar, pine, fir wafts in the air around you. A simple walk outside becomes a reverie of verdant green.

We bring this green in: Christmas trees, wreaths, swags, to remind us that life continues even in these dark months of winter. We light the green with twinkling lights upon the boughs, to remind us of the light that awaits us… not now, not yet.

But soon.

We hold the lights in our hearts like patience and peace, waiting upon its return.

These are the final days of the Shift. The end of the world as we know it. You were either conscious before, or you became conscious during the rough swirling chaos of the last few years, or you are becoming so even now. Open your heart, and let it all in.

In the last few years, most of us have experienced or seen:

• Financial ruin
• Natural disaster
• Health crisis
• Relationship issues
• Relocations and moving
• Passing of loved ones

In all this time, the Universe has been clearing us, clearing us of what we don’t need any more:

• Attachment to the idea of security
• Attachment to the idea of success
• Attachment to the idea of safety

It’s okay. Let it all go. We’re in the Homestretch of Shift 2012, and as a SOUL, you’re either learning or have learned that none of those things matter. You can’t grasp or hold on to anything, anymore.

It just doesn’t work that way now.  The Universe is spinning and things are no longer as they were.

It’s okay. What remains is absolute: Love, Connection, Surrender, Peace. Accepting the all of it, this experience of Divine being in each body, learning soul lessons as best we can, opening to everything: the good, the bad, the ALL of it.

If you haven’t been shaken up, you will be.
If you’ve already sbeen shaken there may be more to come.
If you’ve being shaken right now, you are not alone.

Much love,
SARA