Breathing the air away!

Meital Lior, Frankfurter Rundschau, 13th January, 2010 (Translated from German)A journalist from Israel sets out to find world peace with yogaBreathe. No, I’m not attending a childbirth class; this is not about panting but about breathing. About the simplest thing on earth, or so I thought. Last weekend, I learned that I couldn’t do it properly, and that proper breathing can change the world. This was Regina Bönsel’s promise and she invited me to her apartment in Frankfurt’s West End. She is one of the co-founders of the German branch of the international organisation, “Die Kunst des Lebens – The Art of Living.” This organisation works towards a society free of stress and free of violence. Its message for mankind: “Yoga brings peace to the world.” Brave words for someone like me – I come from Israel and grew up in Jerusalem with the war, right in the middle of one of the world’s most extreme trouble-spots.Ringing the doorbell, I suddenly became scared: will this yoga formula work for me? Is this a sect? The door opens. Regina Bönsel smiles and gives me a slight hug. It feels good. Her blue eyes sparkle and strangely enough, it feels like home, like Israel, where people easily team up with one another. Soon after, I find myself on a beige yoga mat and confess to being an absolute beginner, and as I am 28, I am the youngest one too. Everyone is on a first-name basis right from the start, and our course instructor Volker starts with some stretching. Each movement is accompanied by a noisy breath. He invites us to feel the effect of every single movement and also of the breathing techniques. Unrest disappears with the rhythm of the breath and unease is swept away. I feel secure with them.It’s not exhausting at allIn retrospect, I see what “The Art of Living” is aiming at. All over the world, even in the Middle East, its instructors teach people how to change and maybe even dissolve their tension, anger and frustration with the help of yoga, breathing techniques and meditation. In short: How to have peace within themselves. Then it will be easier to see other people as enriching instead of a threat. So let’s see. As I normally love to watch people and also love to talk to them, it is very hard for me now to close my eyes and delve into myself.Already on the first of four course days, I start to enjoy this new perspective: I don’t need to make an effort to feel close to the others on the course. A peaceful, clear feeling starts to spread inside of me. Israel seems far away. My job’s strain, my impatience in traffic jams, the constant worry about the future of my country, the suffering on both sides caused by the war against the Palestinians. All this has piled up on me and I can feel that I long for relief. But breathing away all of this? Could the war vanish into thin air? We do exercises and have conversations about life and all of a sudden I face an acid test: The other participants form a circle with me standing in the centre. I start shaking, everybody is looking at me. I want to disappear although I really like them all. “Breathe into your stomach and when you exhale, make a sound like you’re starting an engine,” Volker tells me again and again. I start to relax. I feel good, safe, and even secure in the limelight. This is incredible. After four days filled with experiments, I begin to understand how peace could be restored. The clearer I perceived my calm self, my breath, the less I was scared of others. It’s as simple as that, and yet so difficult. I try to imagine what it would be like to practice yoga in Israel with the Herbert Quandt Foundation’s group of young journalists from Palestine and Israel that I am also a member of. We would have a whole different way of communicating with each other. In politics, communicating with each other often means to fight with each other. If we breathe in a different pattern, we can be more relaxed and it will be easier for us to accept one another. Yoga could help us to be different. And then we would realize: I belong to them and they belong to me.