About Rebirthing
— by Maureen Malone

In 1980, I took a seminar called The Loving Relationships Training.  It was an extraordinary  seminar for its time and among the many things addressed one of the most intriguing to me was the section on rebirthing.  The trainers spoke about birth, about the moment  the first breath is taken – you’ve left the safety of the womb – the connection with your mother is physically severed with the hasty cutting of the core, held upside down – slapped and forced to breathe.  Welcome to the world.

      What decisions do we make about the 1st breath.  “It hurts to breathe – It’s not safe – I’m separate – to name a few.  Most of us are left with a breathing pattern that is shallow.  Rebirthing (conscious connected breathing) is about developing a new relationship with your breath and ultimately with yourself. 

     Rebirthing is a breathing technique in which the inhale is connected to the exhale without pause and in a private session you breathe this way for about an hour.  Rebirthing is energy (your breath-life force) clearing anything contrary to life.

     The metaphor we like to use for this is:  picture a glass of water with residue at the bottom.  As you pour more water in the residue at the bottom.  As you pour more water in, the residue rises to the surface leaving clear water.  Same with your breath.. As you circulate your breath through your body anything contrary to that life force energy (eg. negative emotion held in the body will be moved to the surface.  

     Emotionally, rebirthing allows for the integration of past emotional traumas and unresolved or repressed upsets.  Because one often holds one’s breath during emotional situations, (excitement, sadness, anger) energy can be frozen in the cells of your body.  As we oxygenate more in a rebirthing session, our cells literally breathe more – previously suppressed emotion is freed and rises to the surface.  This releases contracted energy in the bod and supports your overall well-being.

     On the physical level alone respiration supports the release of toxins more than any other function of the body, 3% of waste is eliminated thru defecation, 7% thru water, 20% thru the skin and 70% thru respiration.  If for no other reason than this, it’s worthwhile to develop a conscious relationship with your breath for your physical health.

     Notice how you breathe during the day.  As an exercise randomly tell yourself to take a breath throughout the day and notice where you are holding your breath?   - breathing shallowly? – did your shoulders drop an inch?

     In your communication with others what’s happening with your breathing?  Are you breathing easily as someone acknowledges you or you blocking receipt of that acknowledgment by holding your breath.

     Your breath reflects the way you live.  Your inhale reflective of receipt to life.  How much are you willing to take in to receive?  The word inspiration means – to inhale, to breathe life into, to communicate to suggest by divine influence.  Inspire yourself?  Your exhale represents your ability to let go easily, to give out, to let go of control, to be in flow.  By freeing your breathing mechanism thru rebirthing, you can experience increased energy and vitality, stress reduction, greater self-appreciation and self-esteem, release of long-standing physical and emotional tensions, increased intimacy in your relationships, to name a few of the benefits.

     The one other element that is included in rebirthing is mind management techniques.  Thought is creative.  What you think about expands and produces a result in your life.  Every thought you think during the day is an affirmation.  As you give your attention to something negative, you increase the feeling of negative emotion.  We use affirmations (amony other suggestions) as a way of consciously choosing what you want to plant in the garden of your mind.  What do you want to see bloom?  In this way an affirmation is a mental form of conscious breathing.  As you affirm, anything contrary to the positive thought (often hereto fore unconscious) will present itself to you.  You get to see what thoughts or feelings are coloring your perspective and experience of life in a limited way. You get to choose change.

     Rebirthing is an exciting adventure in self-discovery.  By changing your breath, you can change your life.  By breathing in new thoughts you can choose a new perspective.  Your breath is an inherent gift of life.  Why not unwrap it now and see that a present it offers you.