Maximizing Your Enjoyment of the Present Moment 

Since the present moment is all there ever is, let me show you a way of maximizing your enjoyment of it. With that in mind, I would like to have you try a process. This is very simple; it’s a process of maximizing your enjoyment of the present moment.

So I suggest that you close your eyes; notice what your body feels like, and notice that the present moment is indeed enjoyable at least to some extent.

So focus in on the enjoyable quality of the present moment, and make up your mind to enjoy the moment even more.

Really open up to the pleasure that’s available in the present moment, and enjoy it now, even more.

And now enjoy it even more.

Good, nowdouble the amount that you’re enjoying the present moment.

Now enjoy the present moment infinitely.

Alright, now if you’re like most people, what happened for you atsome point during that process, was that you reached the point where it seemed like no matter what you did, that’s just as much as you can enjoy the present moment. You reached what seems to be thelimit to how much youcan enjoy the present moment.

Well, what does that limit feel like? Or another way to put it is, what is it that is limiting your ability to enjoy the present moment? Whatever that limit is, that is something that you can focus on and have a vivid experience of, and find a new way of relating to that, so that you can expand your ability to enjoy the present moment to include whatever it was that was placing that limit there

That is the essence of how Breath Alchemy works. What you do is you find what feeling is limiting your ability to enjoy the present moment and you apply the Breath Alchemy Technique to that feeling, so that you can include that feeling in what contributes to you; and you can expand your ability to enjoy the present moment. 

Now, doing that does more than simply make you happier in the present moment; it does do that. It does in fact, expand your ability to be happy; but it also has a profound effect on your mind. All of the feelings in your body that cause stress and limit your enjoyment, come about from insisting that something that you are contemplating, should be different from what it is.

Any time you compare the reality of the present moment to what I call an “imaginary standard”, you create negativity. You create a withdrawal from the reality of your situation that creates the illusion of limitation, and reduces your creativity and your effectiveness. And it creates an unpleasant feeling in your body that limits your ability to enjoy the present moment.

If you change your mind about that, the feeling that you have about it, will change at the same moment. But more important for understanding how Breath Alchemy works---if you change your relationship to the feeling itself---that will change how your mind relates to the situation at hand. That change of relationship to what you’re dealing with---or that change of context---both resolves the emotion that you are having,and gives you a creative breakthrough.

All creative breakthrough comes from shifting from a context in which you’re insisting that something shouldbe different from how it is, to a context in which you’re focusing on what is there that you can use as a resource. This allows your natural creative process to flow, enabling you to find the solution based on what isthere.

And so, in every case, the result of Breath Alchemy is embracing reality in a new and more useful way, and it is done entirely at the feeling level.

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF BREATH ALCHEMY

So Breath Alchemy is about maximizing your enjoyment of the present moment, thus enabling you to find relief in any stressful situation.

You might then ask, “How do you do that?” The answer is through application of the skills that are known as the Five Step Harmonizing Method of Breath Alchemy.

Breath Alchemy is really one process; however, it can be best taught by describing it as five component skills, called, the Five Step Harmonizing Method of Breath Alchemy. The Five Steps are: 1) Circular Breathing, 2) Complete Relaxation, 3) Awareness in Detail. 4) Integration into Unity, and 5) Do Whatever You Do, Willingness is Enough. It’s important though, to realize that the Five Steps are not steps that you do sequentially. Instead you do them all simultaneously, because Breath Alchemy is just one process, it’s not five separate processes.

The Five Steps when used together, will give you the result called integration. It is so called, because you integrate something into your sense of well- being. Everyone has a sense that certain things contribute to their well-being. But they also think that there are other things that also detract from their well-being.

So Breath Alchemy is about focusing on something that you think has been detracting from your well-being and by applying the process, you integrate that into your well-being, so that it is obvious to you that it does contribute to you. Doing that eliminates stress and all other forms of negativity at its source. It also calms and centers you, leaving you feeling more creative, and more effective.

It‘s absolutely essential to realize that the Five Steps are skills; they are not just a model of what happens automatically in the Breath Alchemy process. All of the Five Steps are skills that you have some degree of mastery over already, just because of your life experiences. At the same time, they are skills that you can keep getting better at forever.