Often people tend to make decisions and choices using a chaotic way of thinking. When the brain is running in ‘survival mode’, we have to make split-second decisions so we just do what needs to be done.

In hindsight, we probably would’ve made a very different decision or choice had we been in a different place or situation.

But we can learn to control the mind with the breath, using it to move from chaotic thinking to coherent thinking. Having said that, we do need both ways of thinking...

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A state of mind

In the world we live in, being coherent is the state of mind that’s generally expected and sought after. But it is natural for the brain to have a chaotic, creative, wild side too.

This is well-represented by the feminine energy, which is not just inside women, but men too. It’s the natural state where chaos drives creativity, whereas masculine energy is more coherent and direct. In order to create anything though, you need a mix of both.

I (Angie) think the feminine energy does have a coherent aspect to it as well, although Shane doesn’t agree. If we really break it down, there's both the masculine and feminine of chaos and masculine and feminine of coherent.

These are linked to each side of the brain. We have two hemispheres in the brain, but it does require some balance. It requires you to understand you do have a left and a right side and they do two very different things - one’s more creative and the other is more logical.

Activating both sides of the brain

We can bring balance to the brain and create a marriage of opposites using the breath. The way to do this is by using the ‘alternate nostril’.

Each nostril is connected to the opposite hemisphere and it’s been scientifically proven that the nose switches between mainly breathing the left and right sides throughout the day, for about 40-60 minutes at a time.

This has everything to do from up-regulating or down-regulating those different sides of the brain to cooling the different sides of the brain. So there is a natural process that happens.

How do you know which side your nose is feeding? Here’s a little hack: just check in with your nose and see which nostril feels like it's breathing more freely. Check in with that if you are in the decision-making process and want to know if you're creative or if you're analytical. If the left nostril is flowing freely, the right brain, the creative brain, is active, and if the right nostril is flowing freely, it’s the left/analytical brain that’s working.

Connecting with yourself

The other thing we find with breathing and mind control is that it helps you to ‘identify your identity’. It can help you start to bring your imagination, your will, and your desire into focus.

These things are all housed in the mind. They're all separate types of energies but we believe the breath is the perfect tool to start weaving these things together. So they are all one thing and a part of you.

We often have clients say, “I've got these bad habits but I can't stop myself.” Chocolate seems to be a popular one. They think their body takes over their mind, but it’s really just people have what we call identity issues.

Sometimes they become so locked in to believing they don’t have control. They think it’s “just the way I am”, when really it all comes down to beliefs.

Often people are having an identity crisis. There are different energies - desire, will, intellect, imagination - that pull you in different directions. Because of that, people don’t understand there's a balance between the masculine and feminine aspects or the coherence and the chaos.

So then there’s more separation going on. Is it any wonder that sometimes these days people think they have got split personalities or are going crazy? They’re not in touch with their identity.

While you're in a ‘meat sack’ on this earth, one of your jobs is to understand these energies and bring them into balance and into alignment.

Inducing a peak state

We've spoken on previous podcasts about integration and why it's important. When you integrate these identity parts of the mind, you start to focus on integrating the two hemispheres of the brain, the masculine and the feminine.

When this happens, a lot of the useless ideas and beliefs and behaviours you had - the running commentary, we call them - will disappear.

Using the breath to weave them together creates a peak state. The peak state shuts off the critical part of the brain which allows the brain to reorganise itself.

Think about it like this: what do you do when the apps don't work on your phone and everything starts bugging out? The first thing you do is you turn the phone off and on again That's like a master reset. We do the same thing. We’re kind of clearing the mental cache using the breath.

Creating space between thoughts 

There is a similar effect you have when you use your breathing to either induce a peak state and/or use the breath as a clearing tool.

When I (Angie) have been in that chaotic state of mind, making a decision was quite stressful. On top of that I would have this running commentary telling myself how I’m not good enough, or that I can’t handle the chaos and pressure.

But using the breath means I can perform a master reset to integrate the two hemispheres of my brain and therefore create some space between my thoughts. This bring more of the coherence state into the chaos and more of the chaos state to the coherence.

My greatest lessons have been finding the coherence in the chaos and understanding them. Once I was able to do that, I really started to have a heightened sense of awareness. I also had a better connection with myself, which allowed me to choose which beliefs I wanted to latch on to.

Creating a choice

Mind control really comes down to you and your choices. It’s about reorganising and choosing the way you want to apply your mind, because your mind is a tool. The ego is part of that, it’s like a pet. You want it to be sharp and turned on

The mind is also connected to the body and the body's connected to the mind but we have a tendency to sever the body from the mind. 

When the breath starts going, it integrates all these things so you can be the best you. The breath is the thread that holds it all together.

If you haven’t had a taste of the types of breathing we are talking about yet, take our free 7 Step Quick Start Breathing Program for a test drive. You’ll be amazed what can be achieved in just 3 minutes.