18/01/2026
Breath is presence
This is how we start.
With a simple tool.
A beautiful tool: the breath.
The first thing I invite my students to do is simply to connect with their breath, without trying to change it or control it.
Not as actors, but as observers.
Observing the quality of the breath:
Is it long and spacious, or short and restricted?
Is there tension?
This is where the practice begins.
By observing the quality of the breath, we naturally arrive in the present moment.
We are less — or no longer — replaying the past or running ahead into the future.
We settle here, attentive, grounded.
When the breath is short or held — often the case with stress, injury, or trauma — the body contracts, and so does the inner world.
By working with the breath, we restore elasticity:
between the ribs, within the lungs, throughout the whole system.
With this simple tool notice how physiology influences psychology.
Before postures.
Before technique.
The practice begins with listening, connecting and being present.
As my first teacher Prem once said, words that stayed with me throughout a few years:
“No breath, no presence.”
With love
Marie 🤍
