Breath as a Bridge to the Self

Samantha Leonard
Jun 17
6 min read

Updated: Jun 26

In a culture obsessed with control and achievement, this series explores the power of surrender—not as giving up, but as a courageous opening to inner transformation.

The Witnessing Self

In the last blog, we explored how gentle, intentional movement opens a conversation with our physical and emotional symptoms. We learned to sense them—and through movement, to actually be with the pain, the anxiety that begins with a tightening in the throat, the knot of unease in the belly.

Through practices like yoga therapy, pandiculation, PNF, and Feldenkrais, we began to notice these sensations not as threats to eliminate, but as messengers to welcome like guests. When we can witness these experiences—like parts of us rather than the whole of us—we create enough spaciousness to sit beside them. Like a loving parent at the bedside of a sick child, our presence becomes the medicine.

And here, breath enters—not as a hack or a fix, but as a wave.

Inhale, exhale, pause...

then again.

This rhythmic motion mirrors the way a parent might gently rock a child to sleep.

It's not the act of breathing that heals, but how we breathe—with compassion, patience, and attunement.

The breath is medicine, and your bedside manner—how you offer it to your inner experience—makes all the difference.

Breath as the Bridge to the Witness

In the yogic tradition of Samkhya, all of reality can be reduced to two elements:

Purusha – the eternal Witness, unchanging and aware.
Prakriti – all that can be witnessed: the manifest world.

These two cannot be separated. They are like two sides of a page.

Prakriti is the coffee I sip as I write this. The rich warm smell. The memories of crisp wintergreen mornings at my grandmothers home, nestled in a West Virginia mountainside. The words you’re reading now. All are Prakriti.

Purusha is that which witnesses all of it.

When we turn toward the breath with awareness, we don’t just calm the body for sleep, or manage anxiety — we begin to remember that witnessing presence inside us.

This is the deeper function of mindfulness. By steadying our attention on something real and rhythmic—like the breath—we create a space between experience and awareness. That space is where we begin to notice we are not our thoughts, our pain, our roles, or our symptoms.

We are much, much, more than that.

The Four Parts of the Breath: A Subtle Language

In yogic practice, the breath isn’t just a tool—it’s a teacher. Pranayama invites us to witness each part of the breath with reverence:

Inhale – the rising wave
Retention – the pause at the top
Exhale – the falling away
Suspension – the stillness at the bottom

Each phase has unique effects on mindset, nervous system regulation, phyiological

functions and so much more. Inhale can uplift and energize. Retention builds focus and inner confidence. Exhale supports release and relaxation. Suspension invites deep, centered stillness—a moment of communion with something beyond words.

When practiced with curiosity and relationship, breath becomes a subtle language—a spiritual current that carries you inward. It’s not just a tool; it’s a companion, a thread pulling you gently toward the deeper chambers of your being.

Each inhale and exhale becomes an invitation to explore your own vast interior landscape—a place many of us were never taught to value, let alone inhabit.

And this inner landscape? It’s full of treasures. Not just moments of peace or fleeting clarity, but mysteries waiting to be unlocked—the most ancient questions echoing through the soul: Who am I? Why am I here? What does this all mean?

Along the way, we don’t just find light. We encounter shadows too: the hidden wounds of worthlessness, shame, or the bone-deep feeling of being alone in the world.

But these, too, are treasures—because when we meet them with the breath as our guide, we finally have the chance to sit beside them. To hold them in awareness. To shine the light of our own compassion on the places that once felt unlovable.

This is the quiet power of breath: not just to regulate or calm, but to reveal. To soften the edges around what we’ve tried not to feel. And in doing so, to help us remember who we really are beneath all the conditioning.

From Symptom to Relationship

Just like we learned to sit with the body’s more obvious symptoms, the breath teaches us how to hold space for more subtle discomfort.

Breath helps us stay present with quieter aches:

a soft throb of longing with no clear object
the invisible grief of aging—not just of the body, but of unlived dreams.
restlessness that arises even in the midst of a good life
the tender sorrow that comes with loving what we know we’ll one day lose.

These aren’t always pains we can name—but the breath helps us name our presence in them. It gives us rhythm and return, teaching us that we don’t have to brace against life’s subtleties—we can be with them.

Its wave-like motion—rising, pausing, falling, resting—is like the rocking of a parent soothing a child. It says "I am with you", "I won’t leave", "We can be here together".

A Practice: Breath as Hymn, Not Hammer

In a culture obsessed with breathing hacks and performance metrics, the breath often becomes a tool—something to master. We treat it like a hammer, pounding away at symptoms.

But the breath isn’t a hammer. It’s a hymn.

A hymn you were born singing.

With coaching and intention, the breath becomes a delicate, subtle song that calls forth even deeper realities than we have covered so far.

The great Krishnamacharya shared this understanding of the breath:

Inhale – God comes to you
Retention – God is with you
Exhale – You go to God
Suspension – You are with God

If the word God doesn’t resonate for you, try:

Life. Love. Mystery. Source. Truth.

What matters is not the name—it’s the intimacy. When we infuse breath with personal meaning, the experience becomes deeply pleasurable and profoundly healing. The nervous system softens. The mind quiets. The soul leans in.

And yes, I can help you find the language that speaks to you.

Soul work for an Ensouled Universe

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Karl Jung

This kind of inner work is one of the most sacred responsibilities we carry as human

beings. To meet ourselves with awareness, to turn toward our wounds with curiosity instead of avoidance, is a way of honoring the mystery that brought us here.

Something—call it nature, the divine, the universe—crafted each of us in an exquisitely unique form. When we engage in the slow, brave work of becoming who we truly are, we give thanks for that gift.

And more than that: we participate in the healing of the world.

Because the world around us is not separate from us—it’s made of us. When individuals are disconnected, the collective becomes fractured. But when even one person begins to live with greater coherence, clarity, and compassion, it ripples outward. Inner alignment creates outer resonance.

The more we each learn to live in flow, the more we restore the flow of the whole.

In the next blog, we’ll continue this 4 part journey—moving from the breath to the heart, where rhythm meets meaning, and where the pulse of life becomes a path of connection, compassion, and courage.

I hope you’ll join me!

Samantha is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, a Noom Certified Health Coach, and founder of Davidson Yoga Therapy and Health Coaching.

She has held complimentary healthcare positions at The Blanchard Institute, Atrium

Hospital, Levine Cancer Institute, Sanger Heart Clinic, and Davidson College. She has presented for Fortune 500 companies and major Universities, both public and professional audiences, on this thing called yoga therapy and what it can do when it is unpeeled, revealed, and adapted to meet the needs and the abilities of the person doing it.

She leverages her three decades of yoga therapy, and health coaching experience with the following therapeutic models:

Breathing Technology
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Jungian Psychology
Jungian Dream Interpretation
Somatic Cognition
Internal Family Systems
Interfaith Perspectives
Spiritual Technologies
Trauma Healing
Polyvagal Somatics
Ayurvedic Lifestyle Coaching
Compassionate Inquiry
Pain Reprocessing Therapy
The Neurosequential Model

All this is to say, there are many doorways to use on the path to healing and self-discovery, and Samantha’s breadth of experience allows for vast creativity on which approach is right for you!