A breath of fresh air for worn-out bodies

'Transformational breathing' claims to give you a lighter, more joyous outlook on life – but does it work, writes FIONOLA MEREDITH

LIKE MANY people, I’ve long felt that my breathing is pretty poor: shallow, erratic, and quick as a cat. At my yoga class, when instructed to take a long deep breath in, I start off promisingly, but then the breath seems to get stuck somewhere just below my clavicle. And when I’m stressed, or concentrating hard, I unconsciously hold my breath, only remembering to breathe when it becomes uncomfortable. Not good.

So I jumped at the chance of a one-to-one session with Alan Dolan, aka the Breath Guru, at a yoga centre in West London. Normally based in Lanzarote, Dolan is an international practitioner of “transformational breathing” or TB. The idea is that, through a powerful form of breathing, the body is flooded with much-need oxygen, which heals and recalibrates us at every level: physically, emotionally and spiritually.

The technique was first developed by Judith Kravitz in California 30 years ago. Aficionados say it increases energy, promotes better sleep, provides mental and emotional clarity, and gives you a lighter, more joyous outlook on life – and let’s face it, who wouldn’t want a bit of that?

I’m normally allergic to anything that smacks of New Age mysticism, and maintain a resolutely cynical attitude to angels, crystals, chakras and suchlike. But although the whiff of incense is the air, and there is soft oriental music playing, Dolan himself is so direct, focused and straight-talking that any fears of woolly logic or sentiment soon evaporate.

Besides, transformational breathing makes perfect sense. As Dolan puts it, “Breath is life – you’re simply breathing more life into your body”. Neither is it anything new: eastern cultures have used breathwork for millennia as a way of putting people in touch with their inner being.

What’s more, it’s a resource that’s literally right under our own noses, open to each one of us if we only knew how to harness it. Dolan says that on average we use about 25 per cent of our respiratory system, and sometimes even less than that: he likens it to “owning the most high-spec television in existence, keeping it on standby and never turning it on”.

So how do you move out of standby and switch on the breath? As I lie half-propped up on a couch, Dolan encourages me to open my mouth wide, take a big, deep breath into my lower abdomen, as though I was inflating a balloon there, and then let it go in a short, relaxed exhale. This cycle is repeated over and over again without pause at the end of every inhale and exhale, so I’m effectively breathing in one continuous loop or circle.

At first, it feels odd, and the temptation is to slow down, falter, or to close my mouth, but Dolan keeps me focused on the flow and rhythm of my breath, conducting it almost like music.

There is a hot, fizzing, buzzing sensation all around my neck and jaw, radiating down my arms and into my fingers; an extraordinary feeling, as though I’ve been plugged into a strong electrical current. Dolan presses gently on acupressure points – especially around my solar plexus – where, he says, energy might be blocked in my system.

But it’s when he touches points at the base of my throat that I feel an overwhelming sense of emotional release. Much to my surprise, tears spring from my eyes, but Dolan helps me stay in tune with the breath by asking me to sing a single note with him, which he varies in pitch several times, and I manage to make a strangulated warble.

Moments later I’m wriggling and giggling involuntarily when he presses a spot near my lower ribs. It feels absurd, intense and profoundly liberating, all rolled into one. Afterwards, gingerly sitting up – Dolan kindly passes me a tissue for my mascara-streaked cheeks – I’m as light and free and giddy as a baby bird.

Another refreshing factor of transformational breathing – especially for a committed over-thinker like me, drawn to endless analysis – is the fact it bypasses the mind altogether. “You move straight to bodily wisdom. You’re not even asking the mind – ‘Do you mind?’,” says Dolan. “To be human is to have baggage, and the mind can really tie us up in knots. But the idea is not to talk about that baggage. It’s to fix it.”

A former high-flying executive working for a well-known aerospace company in Riyadh, Dolan turned his back on the Porsche, the pin-striped suit and the wraparound shades in favour of a life spent exploring the extraordinary mysteries of the breath. It’s a choice he has never regretted.

“The breathwork process accelerates change and growth in a profound way. To me it seems like a kind of evolution fast-track: you get to where you’re going, but the breath just gets you there sooner”.

For more information, see breathguru.com. Alan Dolan will be offering one-to-one sessions in Dublin in March.