Breath and Managing Negative Emotions (P007)
⁘ Created: 2025-03-10 ⁘ Updated: 2026-04-22
Negative emotions are an endless pool of suffering. Breath is the great mediator and conductor, flowing through and between all things. Fear, Anxiety, Disgust, Anger, Sadness, Depression. All of these generate disruptive tensions.
We engage the dynamics of breath to stabilize our emotions. Into a tranquil field of containment and contemplation. Breath won't resolve the roots of your inner conflicts — but it will help you manage it. Find peace in the breath.
- ¶ Negative Emotions and the Mediating Breath ↴
- ¶ Breath Preparation — Overcoming the Grasp of Fear ↴
- ¶ Containing Anxiety and Disgust ↴
- ¶ Dissipating and Directing Anger ↴
- ¶ Alleviating Sadness and Depression ↴
- ¶ In Summary: Breathwork and Managing Emotions ↴
Greetings! At this point, we will be familiar with our three spheres or our three environments. The inner sphere, the core of our being, are structures, the patterns that are inherent to us, or deeply embedded. At the other extreme, we have the outer sphere, the world out there, with all of its living beings, situations and interactions.
And in between, we have the between realm, the inflows and the outflows. Inflows from the world, inflows from our inner core. And again, the outflows into the world, what we pour out into it, and the outflows of the world that enter into our inner sphere.
Negative Emotions and the Mediating Breath ¶
Here we'd like to look at the topic of negative emotions. How to deal with them in the between sphere, which is where most of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions find their expression. Their holographic playground, if you will. And in here, we're not looking at a fundamental existential or philosophical vantage point. We are not looking at the means for the ultimate resolution of all things. Rather, we are looking at symptomatic management.
Of what, today, of negative emotions that arise, that capture us, the feelings that haunt us, make our lives uneasy, troublesome, burdensome. How to alleviate them, how to contain them, how to create an island of tranquility that will not last forever, but that will give you footing, that will give you a platform, atop which you can reorient to what exactly is going on, that is causing all these disturbing emotions, all these disturbing thoughts, the presence that occupies us.
And how do we get there? What is the ultimate tool of the between, the middle ground? What is it that always goes out, that always returns in, that is the media of exchange, between the inner and out world? Our breath, breath, the breath of life itself, is the master of the in-between. On multiple levels. Yes in the physical breath, but also in the inflow and outflow of the mirror of your mind.
So with that, being conscious of the deep interconnection between the breath and the oscillations of the mind, we will look at three or six negative emotions, and how we engage the breath in stabilizing them. Okay? Our six negative emotions are fear, anxiety, disgust, anger, sadness and depression. We may be intimately familiar with the unpleasantness and disruption to our mindstream, that these emotions bring about. All right?
Breath Preparation — Overcoming the Grasp of Fear ¶
We shall start with fear. Fear is a very primal feeling, somewhere at the very core of your being, impacting you deeply. And yes, fear may be of multiple sources, as the other emotions may be of multiple sources. We are but looking at a particular general expression of these emotions. Your mileage may vary and as such, the flow that you engage may vary. Adapt as necessary, take these as a point of reference, understand the dynamic that we are engaging with the help of directed breath. All right?
Before you start any of this, always take a couple of, just proper clean easy natural breaths, to bring yourself to a state of presence and relative calm. All right? Relaxing your body, simply remembering your breath, paying attention to your breath. Taking little pauses, between the inhales and the exhales, there is a quiet, tranquil space there, and it will help you. And we are ready to attend.
Fear. An overwhelming fear, capturing the very center of my brain. So I inhale. Just as blood must flow to an ailing organ, to aid in its recovery. So too breath must flow to a particular zone, to give it a supplement of vitality, a supplement of attention, a supplement of conscious power. All right? Fear. I inhale and concentrate, a presence in the midst of my cranium. And I exhale, I fortify, I create, as it were, shielding. I have what it takes to overcome fear. I simply need to gather myself. Right?
Containing Anxiety and Disgust ¶
Then anxiety. Anxiety is not as fear. Anxiety is more of a whirling vortex with a million heads spinning in all directions. Phantoms orbiting our awareness — and with breath we control them. Our inhale, scoops it all in, and our exhale holds it, a smaller and smaller zone, to a point where the phantoms are no longer phantoms. Most of them evaporate, because they have nothing to present when brought right before your eyes, and looked at for what they actually are. So, anxiety brought back in, there.
Then disgust, revulsion, very much hits you in the brainstem, cerebellum and way back there, a very primal response, these are evolutionary circuits. In some cases, necessary, in some cases, simply vestiges. Simply false alarms, and when they are false alarms, when they are imaginations, when they are hallucinations, we should contain them, tame them.
Let them stabilize or evaporate as may be necessary. Again, with inhale, we create containment. The sort of vomiting out expression, we hold, we hold our primal instincts. And with exhalation, we let them stabilize, we let them level. Inhale, we contain, exhale, we make them level. All right, disgust.
Dissipating and Directing Anger ¶
Then anger. Anger typically, accumulates in the broad chest area, a burden, unease, ready to explode. With inhale, we block the outflows that are often spontaneous, often unintentional and destructive, and with exhale, we stabilize. There can be a bit of power in your breath. Let your breath resonate, anger is a fiery force, and it needs a certain firewall to be kept in its sphere.
And from there onward, you have two directions. Typically, you want to contain your anger, and let it slowly dissipate, in a harmonic manner, rather than violently bursting out in angular forms. There are however situations where anger is a corrective force. Still do not allow for the outburst. First collect, collect that potential and power, and then direct it precisely to where it must go. Random outbursts result in collateral.
Respect the anger, utilize it, as a concentrated, corrective force, when really truly necessary. Otherwise, contain, understand the roots of the anger within you. If anger stems from your ego, it deserves to be, contained and dissipated. If anger stems from an actual infraction in the environment, and it is in the interest of the collective to remediate a situation, then anger, concentrated, utilize it. All right, with the help of your breath. Anger.
Alleviating Sadness and Depression ¶
Then sadness. Again in the chest, a heavy sort of feeling, unhappiness, for whatever reason. Typically, because you are too focused on the particular stimuli that has led to your sadness, whilst there is a world of happiness out there as well. There are countless sources of happiness and sadness.
So we break from the enclosure of that sadness, with the help of our breath, and we expand the streams of our lives. Inhale, like a spring bubbling in your chest, pouring out energy. Like a spring, turning into rivers and rivulets, broadening the horizontal sphere of your consciousness. Expanding yourself. Sadness.
And then the superstate of sadness, we sink into a vortex of depression. Mentally felt, physically felt. Thoughts are morbid. Emotions are heavy. Even the physical body is growing lethargic. For that, you need a deeper dynamic. You need to entirely expand yourself from the invalid point of gravity that has been established, okay?
Inhead all the way from your root. Breath comes in, attention flows out, and expands with your exhale. And in this way, we provide ventilation therapy to exit from the vortex of depression. All right.
In Summary: Breathwork and Managing Emotions ¶
So, these six negative emotions, states of mind, can be alleviated with the help of your breathing. Breath is the master of the middle realm, the in-between of impacts from the outside and your attention from the inside, the challenging space surrounding you. So, use the breath to improve your experience of life and all things.
If there is fear — concentrate your core. If there is anxiety — contain. If there is disgust — level it. Hold the vomit, level it, if there is anger — withdraw, concentrate, and then dissipate or project as necessary. If there is sadness — let your spring flow across the horizontal plane. Discover the joy that exists, mixed with your sadness. And depression — expand as far as you can, gain a broader view, a higher vantage point.
And again, return to your ancient friend, the peaceful and natural breath, that forever flows in and out, in and out, mediating life and existence, physical, emotional, intellectual and beyond. There is peace to be found in the breath.