The Breath of Life

Simply put, breath is the reason Threshold exists.

After living more than three decades totally unaware we breathe in and out for way more than just survival, my life was a mess, and I wallowed in one failed “solution” for it after another.  Then I learned the first bits of the deeper purposes for breathing, and everything changed.  I went from a dark, frenetic season of debilitating, what I call “skin-burning” anxiety, to the last 15 or so years of peace, presence, and freedom, almost completely anxiety free.  And it all started with a guided, 2 minutes of inhaling for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4 seconds.  Truly, when my guide proposed the idea of 2 uninterrupted minutes of breathing, I laughed at the impossibility.  Both because I disbelieved I could focus that long without distraction, and because breathwork at the time sounded a little too "out there" to me, a little too "woo-woo" as the kids say (or is it their grandparents who say that?).  Skeptical doesn't quite capture the extent of my attitude toward it.

But he got me through it.  ALL 2 minutes. ;)  And within a couple months (mind you, this is before Emily & I started a family together), I was sitting alone in my garage breathing the same 4 seconds in & out for 20 minutes that felt like 3.  Some might call that a miracle.  And in the practice the benefits came both Obvious & Immediate.

Of course, stress and worries still arise these days.  I am, as of 2025, a husband of 20 years and a dad to two strong, talented, beautiful daughters for 13 of those (that's one in 7th grade if you're curious about some of the worries I'm referring to).  But stress is a part of being human.  The difference now is how I respond/what I engage when the outside forces arrive.  Through learning how to breathe deeply ... slowly ... diaphragmatically ... I unearthed an immediately accessible way to stay balanced and connected to reality, no matter the circumstance, right here within the highly sophisticated, miraculously-designed instrument, we call the body.  

If you haven’t experienced it yet, you will be amazed by the power of even one intentional breath in the morning.  Drawn the right way, one breath can balance your nervous system, lower your anxiety, and communicate serenity to a mind unceasingly processing whether or not we’re safe in the world around us.  One healthy breath every morning can change the course of your day before stress has time to intervene (for some of us this might mean, “Get up & to it quickly!”).  Imagine what happens with more!

Sadly, though, a constant state of breathing the "wrong" way (e.g. shallow, high, through chest & neck muscles, from the mouth, etc.), not only fails to bring calm, but, in fact, initiates stress.  Thrusts the nervous system into fight or flight.  That's wild to me, but I've seen it in practice, lived it even.  And it's not good.

But the solution is unbelievably easy!  When you commit to the consistent practice of the most natural type of breathing available, the type we come into the world as helpless babies breathing, your mind, your body, the depths of your soul will function for you in ways you’ve long ceased believing possible.

Dare I say it?  Without exception.

And that's why I'm here.  To bring you the skills someone brought to me, skills passed along from the beginning of time, and help you get to the source of who we were all made to be.

Come on.  What are we waiting for ...
joel

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