A couple of weeks ago, my team and I released Inspire, Volume 2 – Ten More Tracks to Master the Breath. It’s an evolution in working with the breath I call “Pulling the Mind Out of the Body,” and I’m excited to tell you more about it.

When we released Inspire, Volume 1, early last year, the feedback from our community was resounding – for many reasons. For those who already were deep into the work and committed to the breath, it was another tool to practice something they love and integrate it even more into their practice. For those who struggle with the breath, it provided numerous ways to learn more about how to work with it – with varying tempos, tones, and levels of guidance.

And almost from the moment we released Inspire, V1, people have been asking for more. Specifically, they’ve been asking a question I’ve heard countless times over the years: “Dr Joe, how do you do the breath?” With that request in mind, my team and I set about creating Inspire, V2.


The Movement of Energy

To give you an idea of what you’ll experience with this new volume of breath tracks, I’m going to walk you through my own practice – the “what” and the “why,” so the “how” gets easier.

I always start off seated with my back straight – and this means not resting my back against the chair. For me, it’s just the best way to do it. With that posture, I’m making a commitment that there’s nothing more important to me, in that moment, than the movement of energy.

Because that’s what the breath, ultimately, is about: moving energy. It’s important to approach the practice with this intention as your singular objective. “Pulling the Mind Out of the Body” is just as it sounds. It’s a practice that allows our body to relax – while still having enough energy in the brain that we don’t fall asleep during meditation. Relaxed and awake. That’s the goal. And the breath helps us achieve that state.

So, I sit up straight with commitment and intention. My eyes are closed. And then, I allow the music to transport me. To take me out of my resting state. To inspire me to move energy.

Inspiration. Passion. Desire. Commitment. All of these are integral to my own practice. When it comes to moving energy, I believe at least 50 percent of the practice has to do with the power of the intention we bring to it – so it becomes less of a technique and more of an act. And I want to get so lost in the act, the act itself produces the experience. In this way, my practice becomes less about the result – and more about my effort.


Drawing Energy – ‘From Six’

With all of these elements in place, I then place my awareness on my sixth energy center – the pineal gland. You’ll hear me refer to it on these new breath tracks simply as “six.” I seat my consciousness in that sixth center because I want to draw the energy from the base of my spine – from the perineum; the first energy center; that creative life force – all the way up to that sixth center in my brain. And I want to draw it to me like drawing fluid up a straw. Right to my brain; right into six.

So, pulling from six, I ascend the breath through the first five energy centers. As I inhale, I coordinate the contraction of the muscles in each center – one after another. Once I’ve landed at six; once I’ve drawn my breath to the pineal gland; I’m not finished. My years of practicing the breath have shown me I can always pull more energy from the body into the brain – with simultaneous micro-contractions of the muscles related to each energy center.

So, as I finish my breath in six, without inhaling, I draw still more energy to that center by lifting those muscles up even more. I pull up; I don’t release those muscles; and then through a smaller and smaller series of contractions, I pull up a little bit more each time, gently squeezing, until I’ve finally drawn all the energy I can – in that cycle – into my sixth energy center.

Now, having pulled the mind out of the body, I hold it … and hold it … and then exhale. Then I take a moment to feel that energy in my brain – before I begin again.


Liberating Emotions and Energy – and Yourself

With that as your model, you’re ready to practice on your own. In the breath tracks on Inspire, V2, you’ll hear me say, a number of ways, “From six” or, “It’s for six. Draw it to you into six.” Now that I’ve walked you through my own practice, you can bring that intention to yours. Seat your awareness in that sixth center ­– in the pineal gland – and then draw energy to it by ascending the breath from the perineum, in your first center, all the way up to six.

As a sidenote, some people love to do the breath – while others resist it. And still others are committed to the idea that they can’t do it, or don’t know how. Another question I’ve heard countless times is, “Do I have to do the breath?” If this is something you’ve struggled with, let’s quickly review why the breath is so important.

Our data shows that when we practice pulling the mind out of the body, an enormous amount of energy moves into the brain. It creates an arousal that can produce high states of coherent gamma brain waves in the autonomic nervous system – the seat of the limbic brain, where the energy moves when we do the breath. That arousal feels good, by the way. When that energy hits, it suppresses our critical and analytical faculties. We stop reacting and thinking – and start relaxing and feeling.

In other words, we’re relaxed and awake – the perfect state in which to create.

If you put this all together – bringing your own passion, will, commitment, curiosity, and desire to your practice – and draw the energy from the body into the brain, you can free the body from the emotions of survival that are stored in your lower energy centers. As the energy ascends, and reaches your brain, and you reach that state of arousal, those emotions of survival are transmuted into the elevated emotions of creation.

So, when you liberate those emotions, you liberate energy – and, in a sense, you liberate yourself from your past.


Inspiration Through Sound Immersion

I want to say just one more thing about why Inspire, V2 is so special. Just as Inspire, V1 was a labor of love more than a year in the making, such was the case with this second volume. Our extraordinary team of collaborators was committed to evolving not only the way you practice the breath, but also the way you experience the movement of energy through an immersion in sound.

We wanted to create an aesthetic; a sonic impression; a signature that would be big enough to help you forget about your outer world – and instead be engrossed in the sound, the unique vocals, and the rhythm, allowing you to surrender to the process and go within. Our team worked to create a soundscape that will move you out of your resting state, draw you in, and help you get lost in the act – so that you, too, can make it be less about the result and more about your effort.

So remember: at least 50 percent of this practice is about the passion you bring to it. In a sense, “you just gotta want it.”

Inspire, Volume 2, is your dance with energy. I hope you enjoy it.


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Find your rhythm. Experience Inspire, Volume 2.

To watch a Livestream recording of Dr Joe in conversation with some of his Inspire, V2 collaborators, log in to your Unlimited account and look for it under “Community Groups,” then “Community Live.” If you don’t yet have a free account, you can create one at this link.

For an in-depth exploration of the breath, you also can learn more in Dr Joe’s book, Becoming Supernatural.