How To Do Circle Breathing

Didgeridoos and Drum

Can you blow air out of your mouth while inhaling? That sounds like doing two opposing things at once. And it is. But it can be done. Why would anyone want to? Is there a practical reason for doing that? Or is it just something a person can do that has no useful purpose, such as rubbing one’s tummy and patting one’s head at the same time?

Circle breathing has a practical use. Circle breathing is a technique used by musicians who need to continue blowing into their horn or didgeridoo while, at the same, time breathe in air.

Learning to circle breath takes time and practice because our bodies have to be trained to do things that are opposite each other.

It is best to learn with a tube whose opening is about one inch in diameter. A plastic golf club sleeve would work. You can also use a didgeridoo.

When I was in the Navy, I was taught the phrase, Loose lips sink ships. We were taught never to divulge where our ship was headed to anyone. Loose lips in circle breathing is all about the physical nature of your lips. It is not what you say to anyone. Thus, you need to learn how to blow through loose lips.

Step One: Fill your cheeks with air and blow the air out between your loose lips so that your lips flap as the air passes through. Pretend that you are a little child playing with toy cars and making the engine sound with your lips. After you have done that a few times, blow the air out without making a noise, other than the noise your lips make as they flap against each other. Practice that a few times.

Step Two: Fill your cheeks with air. Take your two hands and push your fingers into your cheeks so that you push the air out. There should be a small sound emitted as the air escapes between your lips.  Practice this a few times.

Step Three: Fill your cheeks with air. Hold it in your cheeks. Blow the air, that is in your lungs, out through your nose. Make sure you retain all the air that is in your cheeks. Once the air in your lungs is gone you will need to take air in. Wait just a bit longer. Now go back to Step Two: Use your fingers to push the air out of your mouth as you breathe in air through your nose at the same time.

The first time you try this it will not feel natural to your body. Your body might refuse to cooperate by waiting until you have pushed all the air out of your mouth before it allows you to inhale. Do not be discouraged. Your body is being confused by what seems like conflicting commands.  Ignore your body’s confusion and keep trying. You will succeed. Practice doing this a few times until it feels easy.

After you have succeeded in doing Step Three you are ready to move forward.

Step Four. Fill your cheeks with air and hold it. Blow out all the air in your lungs. Make sure you blow it all out. Retain all the air that is in your cheeks. Hold it until you feel you really need to breathe. Now, without the aid of your fingers, use your cheek muscles to blow out the air in your mouth while you inhale through your nose.

It is harder without the aid of your fingers. But with practice you can do it. Keep practicing. You can use your fingers as a reminder. But practice without the aid of your hands. You can tighten your lips a wee bit, if necessary, when you use your cheek muscles to push the air out of your cheeks.

Once you have succeeded with Step Four and you feel confident, you can move forward to circle breathing with an instrument.

Step Five. Take your tube or didgeridoo. Hold it against your lips, but not too tightly. Fill your mouth with air and hold it. Blow the air through your didgeridoo or plastic golf club sleeve with loose lips. Before you run out of air, use Step Four to inhale through your nose so that you can blow continuously through your didgeridoo, without stopping.

When you have mastered Step Five, contact me and I will teach you how to swallow while circle breathing.  

Holding On To What Enhances My Life

I picked up my didgeridoo and carried it outside into our backyard. The didgeridoo and I sat on the lawn under the guava tree while the sun blew a gentle breeze onto my shoulders. The sun giggled because it had stolen the moisture from the grass and turned its blades into stiff bristles that poked my butt. “Move over here.” I turned to the seven foot tall potato bush. “Move over here,” the potato bush’s purple blooms whispered again. I stood up, brushed the dry bristles from my butt and sat in the shade of the potato bush.

I placed my didgeridoo on my toes, closed my eyes and blew. My Spirit Helper came and walked me around the yard, first asking the climbing rose, “What does he need to hold onto?” She didn’t wait for an answer before leading me to the lemon tree, the potato bush, the orange tree and the guava tree. She asked the same question of each one.  Then my spirit helper turned to me. “Follow me,” she said. We walked up to the guava tree and climbed into the crack in the open branch. Down we went to the pond in the lower world. Abuelita sat on a concrete bench with other Spirit Helpers around her. “Siéntate,” she said and patted the space next to her on the bench. She smiled at me and waited. “What should I hold onto?” I asked.  She motioned for me to look at the pond.

An enormous shimmering black Raven, the size of the entire pond, glided down and hovered over the pond. Its beak glimmered like obsidian.  It shrunk down to my size and came over to me. It stared at me with its left black eye. “Hold on to this,” he said. “To your spiritual access, to your healing energy, to what feeds your soul.” He pointed with his beak to Coyote.

Coyote danced on his hind legs and shook his forepaws in the air.  “Hold on to goofiness, silliness, and play,” he said. “For they will supply the food that feeds your soul. Never forget that you are here to play.” He laughed and continued dancing.

I turned to my Spirit Helper. She walked over to me with long and slow movements of her legs. I caressed her head and rubbed under her chin. She purred and brushed her head against mine. She held my gaze as she said, “Hold on to your capacity for compassion, for listening to sad stories, for sitting with the pain of others and for being the healer. Never forget that we are here to work with you, to play with you and to laugh with you.”

Coyote walked over to me. “And don’t take yourself too seriously,” he said and grinned. “Don’t forget that you are here to bring joy and you can’t do that if you can’t be goofy.” He licked me a kiss.

My Spirit Helper led me back up the tree and back to where my body played the didgeridoo. I turned and all of the Spirit Helpers had come with us. I thanked them for their guidance and love. I opened my eyes and heard, Coyote say, “Don’t forget to wipe the grass off your butt or you’ll be a grass ass.” I heard him laugh as he trotted ahead of me.

The Exorcism

     I don’t like doing exorcisms or depossessions. To be perfectly honest they scare the hell into me, not out of me. 

     I received a phone call from a young man. “Do you do exorcisms? I feel that a demon is inside of me,” the man said. His voice was almost a whisper, as if he were trying to keep someone from over hearing. I asked him why he thought he was possessed. He told me that he had suicidal thoughts. He also had nightmares and he couldn’t sleep. Throughout the day he had weird and violent thoughts. 

     I set a day for him to come for a healing session. I had arranged for one of my shamanic students to assist me with drumming. She arrived early with her teenage daughter. She asked if her daughter could help drum.

     I told my student where to sit and drum on the steps leading into my healing room. I looked deep into her daughter’s eyes and said, “Listen to me carefully. I am grateful that you want to help. I must warn you that if you feel even the slightest bit of fear you must leave immediately and go upstairs. Do not come back down, no matter what you hear. Do you understand?” She nodded. 

     The doorbell rang. I told my student and her daughter to stand next to each other and wait for me in the healing room. I picked up a bundle of sage and lit it from a candle in my healing space. I went to the door and opened it. A young man in his early twenties stood with is hands at his sides. Fear was in eyes. His lips were taught and colorless. His face was gaunt. 

     My abdomen began to vibrate as soon as he asked me if I was the shaman. I took a long slow breath while telling myself that I was strong and protected. I stepped outside and asked him if he was allergic to sage. He shook his head, no. I used a bunch of feathers to blow the sage around body. A different voice, a stronger and meaner voice said, “That burns. I don’t like that.” 

     I jerked back, took a breath and ignored the voice. I asked the man to follow me. I led him down the first set of stairs into the den and the down the steps into my healing space. 

     “Please lie down on the rug with your head toward the fireplace,” I asked. 

     His face became darker and at the same time it became frightened.  My hands were already sweaty.When he was in a prone position, I stood next to him with my drum. I told him that I would find his helping spirit, his power animal and then I would consult to see what kind of healing he needed.

     I looked at my assistant and her daughter. “Keep pace with my drumming and don’t stop, even if I do. Keep drumming and asking your helping spirits to protect all of us.” 

     I drummed and called in my own helping spirits.My mouth became dry and my abdomen vibrated faster. I closed my eyes and waited for my helping spirit to show up. “We are ready,” she said. “Relax. Know that you are hear to heal and we will protect you.” 

     I began singing a healing song as I laid my body next to the young man’s. I continued drumming as I left my body and went on a search in the lower world for his helping spirit. A fox showed up and let me know that he was the young man’s spirit helper. I pulled the fox to my chest and brought him up to my healing room. I stopped drumming. I leaned over the young man and blew the fox into his chest. 

  “Stop! That burns!” A raspy and sharp voice said. “There is no room for that filthy fucking fox in here! This fucker is mine! Leave him to me! This fucker is mine!”

     My whole body was vibrating. “Breath and do not be afraid,” my spirit helper said. 

     “Easy for you,” I said to my helper. 

     I took a big breath. I asked the young man to sit up. I blew the fox into the top of his head. The young man’s body began to twist. His head turned far beyond what I thought was humanly possible. 

     “Leave us alone. This fucking piece of shit is mine!” The voice yelled. He began to howl and make unearthly noises and shrieks.

     A part of me wanted to run out of that room. 

     The fox and my helping spirit stood on either side of the man. I picked up my didgeridoo and began to play. I moved it around the man’s body as I walked around him, blowing my didgeridoo. The man contorted his body, yelling obscenities and telling me to stop. The young man stared at me with eyes that were not his.

     Oh shit! What have I got myself into?” I ask of myself. I closed my eyes and filled myself with love and compassion. My knees were shaking. I reopened my eyes. I took a big breath and resumed playing the didgeridoo. 

     The man’s body contorted and twisted as if he were in great pain. I put my didgeridoo down and brought over a bowl of water. “Please leave his body,” I said. “You can’t stay there. Come into the water. The water will heal you.”

     “Fuck you! This little piggy is mine!”

     I lit the sage and wafted the smoke across the man’s body. “Enter the water before you die.” I said.Somehow, I could feel strength coming up through my feet. "Enter the water before you die.” I said louder. “Enter the water before you die!” I yelled.

     I felt the entity enter the water. The water rippled. A horrible stench of rancid body odor filled the room. I re-lit the sage and wafted it over the water. When my spirit helper nodded, I picked up the bowl and carried it out of the healing room, out the back door and far into the back yard. 

     “Please dear forest helpers. Take this spirit and give it healing. Do not let it come back.” I tossed the water into the forest.

     I came into the room. The horrible body odor was still in the room when I returned. I played my didgeridoo around the man.  I sang a healing song for him. I took my rattle and shook it all around his body.

     He stood up. His shoulders relaxed. He had a smile on his face. “That was so weird,” he said. “I don’t know how to thank you.” He put his head down and said, “I’m sorry. I think I invited that thing into me. I was playing with things I shouldn’t have.” The man hugged me and left. 

     I came back to my healing room. My assistant was there by herself. “My daughter left as soon as the man’s body began to contort itself. Can I go get her? Oh. Is it just me or did you also smell some horrible body odor when you removed the entity?”

     I told her that the body odor was real. I opened the windows to the healing space and smudged it with sage when she went upstairs to get her daughter. I thanked my helping spirits and the sage spirit. 

     When my assistant and her daughter came back into the healing room, her daughter said. “Wow! That was scary.” Her eyes were wide and lit up. “Hollywood has the exorcism and possession thing down pretty well.”

Letter For the Low Days

Dear Mushroom, 
     You have done so well in your personal evolution. I bet you never imagined that your last 68 years would have been so interesting, so inspiring and heartwarming as you have made them. You have been so blessed, in so many ways. Your life started with your first life and death struggle. You and your mother almost died at your birth. You earned your first scar. But you survived and thrived. 
     When you were 4, you were attacked by a vicious bird that was nearly as big as you were. You survived with only physical scars. 
     You were sent away from your parents and brothers when you were 7. You learned that you could thrive without them being present. You learned that love is bigger and that grandparents can love you as much as your parents do. 
     When you joined your parents in California in the 3rd grade you endured racism and over the next several years you questioned your worth. You wished that you were blond and blue eyed so that you could fit in. And you had best friends that made life wonderful and fun which helped you endure when you were beat up, bullied and by white boys who called you nigger, wet back, Jap and other demeaning words. You became timid and learned to become invisible. And you survived. 
     You learned that the world divides itself into us and them. And that sometimes you were one of us (with your best friends) and at other times you are one of them. Sorting that out took you a while, but you learned. 
     You wanted to be a priest. And you asked many questions that could not be answered to your understanding or satisfaction. You kept asking and praying. When you were told that you needed to take a break from the seminary you were not disappointed. You understood their concern when they told you that you acted and asked the same kinds of questions that the current radical priests had asked when they were in the seminary. You knew, somehow that your time in the seminary was complete for your stage of evolution. 
     After high school, you discovered music and art. And you were good at both. You fell in lust and love. It was wonderful until it abruptly ended after only two years. You slid into a depression that was so low that your own mother asked you to move out because your energy was making everyone sad.
     And then the Viet Nam war saved you from yourself pity and put you to your most painful test. You were made a leader and you succeeded so well that your own peers stood and applauded your leadership. You were sent off to war and realized that your biggest fight would be you’re your immediate boss, the chief. You stood up for yourself in the face of adverse authority. He hated you but grew to respect you, in spite of your “weirdness.” 
     When a new officer came on board and saw you screaming around the ships smoke stack, the executive officer told the new officer that you might be the only person on the ship who was sane. And you probably were. 
     On your second ship you led an anti-war demonstration when your ship had turned around and returned to fight again in the Tonkin Gulf. You knew how “stupid” and how necessary it was. You knew the risk. You stood your ground and led it anyway. When you left the ship, the executive officer privately thanked you for doing that because it helped everyone out. 
     You returned from the war and convinced the most amazing woman you ever met to marry you. She had a degree, you didn’t. But with here help, you finished school.
     When you two moved to New Mexico you both became contraceptive counselors for Planned Parenthood and thus helped many young people prevent unwanted pregnancy. You worked as a political writer for a local newspaper. When you found out that your publisher was cheating not only you but your other coworkers, you called the staff together and told them what you had found out and that you were going to expose him, know that all of you would lose your jobs. When they agreed, you exposed him. He did his time in prison. 
     You earned your degree and became an architect. You became a “legend” in Fort Worth. You earned the highest ranking of any intern who had gone through the program. You were a very good design architect. On a personal level, you were funny and delightful. You were respected for who you had evolved into. You accomplished much as an architect. 
     After Jeremy died your evolution sped forward on many levels. Your first son’s death threw you into the depths of grief. You learned how to talk and counsel other bereaved parents and others suffering through grief. 
     Your ancestors came forward and presented you with opportunities to learn the ancient ways of healing. You became a shaman and have healed so many. You became a public speaker advocating for organ and tissue donation and indirectly saving many lives. 
     And now you have written two books and you are working on your third. Your first has been a healing for other veterans. 
     You strive to be a blessing upon the Earth and you are.