Spiritual Warfare and Breathwork
A question I receive from a lot of Christians is, “Am I opening myself up to evil spirits when I do breathwork?”. I think the better question is - Do you think I can enhance my armor of God against evil spirits by doing breathwork?
In case you are thinking,” Armor?”, here it is in Ephesians 6:11: Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Before I venture into this topic, I think it is important to give some background first. When I wrote my first article Christianity and Breathwork - are they compatible?, little did I realize the number of Christians who were struggling with trying to go about learning breathwork in a way that felt spiritually safe. These days I joke about it saying, ”Breathwork is the new psychedelic.” You hear people talking about “highs'' and “hacks”, none of which sounds very Christian at all. Worse still, more and more breathwork practitioners post photos of people screaming and crying and talking about DMT releases that one can experience through breathwork. Unless you are a Charismatic Christian who has had experience with getting slayed, or someone who has experienced miraculous healing in a healing mass, these don't sound very appealing either. These issues led me to write a second blog that went deeper into finding the right breath coach A guide for the devout Christian to choose a Breath Coach.
Now moving on to the topic of Spiritual Warfare. How can Breathwork enhance your spiritual armor to defend yourself against the evil spirit? One increases their awareness both internally within themselves (called interoceptive awareness) and external environment through their 5 physical senses as well as proprioception, when they start doing breathwork. You can see this when people notice things they never noticed before on their drive to work, or their sense of smell and hearing are enhanced. It also helps develop heightened awareness of one’s thoughts and emotions, through which you have better awareness on whether or not you need to be thinking fast or slow (Thinking, Fast and Slow). You will also find that it becomes easier to recognize thoughts that are not of the Holy Spirit and immediately discard them. The more you enhance your level of self knowledge and self awareness through breath, the faster it is for you to spot the devil lurking around. From experience, I can share that the initial movements of the devil can be extremely subtle looking for an entry way through temptation, and breath being just as subtle proves to be a great contender to notice such movements. Knowing how to bring your mind and your heart into alignment also enhances your ability to make decisions over matters that need spiritual discernment. Once you learn how to use breath as a tool, you can immediately don the armor on, and protect yourself from temptation, obsession and oppression. However, learning your breath, and its patterns, does take time and discipline of a daily practice, and in the interim of getting to this point, there are things you can do to ensure you are still walking the path that makes you feel psychologically safe.
In addition to all of the benefits you get from heightened awareness, you can also deepen your prayer life. St.Paul says in Ephesians 6:18,” And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” You can start your breathwork sessions with prayer. You can even say the Prayer to St. Michael which is a very common prayer to ward off the evil spirit. It is also good to set an intention before a breath session. It can be a special petition to God, or you can look at breathwork as a way to spend time glorifying God. A friend of mine once said, that she does her breathwork in the morning as a part of her morning offering to God.
You can also invite the Holy Spirit into your body, mind and soul at the beginning of every breath session or associate every breath you inhale with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (more explanation on these gifts here - The Gifts of the Holy Spirit or just focus on the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. Every breath you exhale, you can let go of fear, doubt and all things that are not of God.
You can also pray for healing. I often pray for my spiritual, mental and physical healing and cleansing of my senses. As a catholic, I go to Holy Mass and pray the rosary every day and go to confession often, and am very in tune with my breath through these activities as well. I think it is imperative for me to do so, considering the number of new people I come across and come in contact with on a day-to-day basis, it is my way of ensuring my body, mind and soul are cleansed regularly. I also say the name “Jesus” often in my day or the line “Jesus I trust in you” while I focus on my breath, for I do believe in the power of His name, and if there are any evil spirits lurking around, I trust in the remembrance of the Lord being enough for me to be protected.
My breath has enhanced my ability to trust and surrender to the Lord and allow him to guide me through the moments of stillness and silence that I experience through my practices. I cannot state enough, how important it is to have spiritual companions on your journey. As a Catholic, I have access to a spiritual director, and I never take any major decisions till I discuss them with him. This is imperative for anyone indulging in any sort of meditative and contemplative practice. Thoughts and feelings that come up in your breath sessions, especially if they are in line with walking a path different from what you are walking right now, need to be shared and discussed with spiritual companions who know you well and have observed your walk with God. At a minimum, you should be employing “Discernment of Spirits” by St. Ignatius. Ensure that you have friends around you that have no problem speaking the truth to you, even if it hurts. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)
You can also feel raw and vulnerable. Various thoughts and emotions can arise during a breath session, and it is important to spend time assimilating what comes up. Physical, spiritual and emotional experiences vary from person to person due to the changes in their physiology and biochemistry as well as the state of mind the person is in. In the event you feel raw and vulnerable, make sure you are around family and friends after a breathwork session, especially people you trust. Make sure you are also working with a coach or a practitioner who is available to you.
Also a great rule of thumb is to not dabble between breathing techniques. Find one that suits you and go deep into it. Once you understand the principles of what you are doing, then you can apply them to your day to day life. It is almost like learning the keys to playing the piano. Once you get that down, you can compose any kind of music you want. You can also start venturing into praying unceasingly through breath, as St Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Hopefully these tips give you more confidence in pursuing your journey with breath as well as enhancing your Armor of God. If you have tips of your own on how you enhance your armor through your breathwork practices, please comment away below!