I Wrote A Book!

This has been three years in the making and I'm incredibly proud to share it with you

The new front cover!

My profile page here on Substack starts with:

My mission is simple: To spread love and joy through the art of writing.

I publish weekly. Usually 2-3 minutes of uplifting content.

Some might be about a quote or a philosophy I love. On occasion, I’ll go deeper into a breathing technique I’m exploring.

Today is focused on the latter and it’s been three years in the making.

As you’re the first to know about it I’d like to share the opening chapter with you. You’ll then be able to buy the rest of the book when you get to the end if you feel inspired :)

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The Joy of Breathing

Chapter 1: In the Beginning 

“Breath is a tool with which to explore the truth about oneself” – S.N. Goenka

I had just signed up for my first scuba diving experience and after listening to the safety briefing, it was time to get into the water. However, as I lifted all the heavy equipment onto my back and shuffled my way to the edge of the boat, I wondered if I’d made a grave mistake.

To steady my nerves, I took a few quick, panicked breaths into my lungs before jumping in the water and feeling the first drops of ocean seep through my wetsuit.

Upon surfacing, I made sure to give the “OK” sign which I had just learned is expected of every diver who feels safe enough to do so, even though this was far from my truth. The truth was that it was 8 am, schools of fish were beginning to circulate around me, and I was crapping myself.

As I descended into the deep blue and took my first few breaths underwater, however, I knew my life had changed. There is something truly unforgettable about breathing in a place where the breath doesn’t exist, especially when it’s among gorgeous coral heads and beautiful sharks. 

As the dive went on though there was something that kept nagging me: I knew nothing about my breath. I had no idea that my emotional state affected its rhythm and its rhythm affected my emotional state. All I knew was that I flip-flopped between feeling excited and awestruck to tense and uneasy and this made my breath much shorter and sharper than normal. Short and sharp breaths underwater affect both buoyancy control and stress levels so not only was the quality of my experience being affected but so was the length of it. On the same tank of air, for instance, I lasted just 20 minutes while the rest of my group lasted 55. Along with feeling embarrassed, I was also confused.

Once everyone was safely back onboard, my instructor comforted me by saying, “Experienced divers tend to breathe slower, deeper breaths in and out so their air lasts much longer. Newer divers like you tend to breathe shorter, sharper breaths so your air runs out much faster.” 

Fortunately, I had signed up for another dive 45 minutes later so I could test his theory out. And he was right. As I became more relaxed in the water, my breath slowed down and I lasted twice as long. Years later, I learned the significance of this in terms of health, happiness, and the longevity of our lives out the water too. 

Since that awesome day 13 years ago, I have become a scuba diving instructor myself, teaching hundreds of students all over the Caribbean. Then as my life began to change, my love of the breath guided me into Kundalini yoga and breathwork which I have been teaching ever since. 

What has struck me the most about my journey is that it didn’t seem to matter which direction I took in life or the language I studied in, the culture it belonged to, or how old each technique was because they each expressed, in their own unique way, the same or similar message. And that is that slow, deep breathing supports long-term health while short, sharp breathing does not.

Over the years, two other things have become clear: 1. The breath always has consistent outcomes. Speed it up and the heart, brain, and nervous system will all speed up. Slow it down and they will all slow down. This not only affects stress levels and blood pressure but it also greatly influences digestion, sleep, and the secretion of hormones. 

2. The breath is the one thing that connects all 8 billion humans together. Roughly half of us will inhale at the same time and roughly half of us will exhale at the same time. This, for the average person, occurs every 3.3 seconds. Each one of those breaths, regardless of where they’re breathed in the world or the age, gender, race, status, or health condition of the body who breathes them, will activate all ten systems in the body — skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive. For each breath forms the density of bones, teeth, and sheaths of muscle fibre, it repairs, maintains, and regulates organ functionality, it aids digestion, it adds and subtracts weight, it directly communicates with the nervous system, it regulates the body’s temperature, removes toxins, releases hormones and endorphins known to cause stress and relaxation, and balances the body’s pH levels. It does this breath after breath, from birth until death, every single moment we are alive, and it never ever stops. 

Some breaths cause inflammation and fatigue. Others, if sustained long enough, can even change bone structure. What I unintentionally discovered while I was learning to scuba dive that day was a truth that not only forms the foundations of this book but of life too. And that is that the quality of life is directly linked to the quality of the breath. But, more importantly, with a few simple exercises, it can produce specific outcomes that are beneficial to health.

I am confident in saying this because I have experienced it myself. Ever since childhood, I lived with anxiety and everything I tried as an adult only brought momentary respite at best. That was until I did my first breathwork session and watched how I merged with a universal consciousness that soothed my anxious and individuated mind. It was a peculiar moment, one that felt like I was simultaneously moving backward in time and forward in space as if I was travelling to and from some ancient future. That experience unlocked something deep inside and because it happened through the breath (and the breath breathes close to 20,000 times a day), I knew I could access it over and over again, which for someone with anxiety, felt like a superpower. 

I’m not going to pretend that working with the breath produces similarly blissful moments because it’s not about that. The breath can reveal all kinds of layers and depths to one’s life and more often than not it does. So, along the way, I’ve encountered a fair amount of resistance and insight too. However, what I’ve come to appreciate is that the lows, as much as the highs, are an essential part of the process. So just like anything worth pursuing in life, exploring the breath is a journey. One that I’ve found to be so incredibly rich and rewarding, uplifting and empowering, tender and illuminating, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

The remaining pages of this book are an attempt to capture those characteristics in the only way that I know how — through storytelling, scientific research, and self-inquiry.

Woven among the material and strategically placed within each chapter will be questions and breathing exercises that invite you into your own direct experience. My intention here is to bring as much of the theoretical knowledge into experiential learning as possible so you can connect with your own body’s innate wisdom. No one can breathe the breaths that you breathe or tell you how to breathe them, after all. That’s on you. However, it can be helpful to have a resource that supports you every step of the way. That’s on me. So, we’re in this together. Are you ready?

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I hope you enjoyed the opening chapter! If you feel inspired to buy the book you can click on the button below.

I’d love to hear what you think :)

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