The Breath That Brought Me Back

by Rick Fulton

I’ve been diving into the breath for over a decade.
Not floating through it.
Diving. Deep.

And it hasn’t been all light and ease. There was confusion. Missteps. Plateaus that felt like dead ends.
But something in me knew — the solution wasn’t out there.
It was inside.

The First Door: Wim Hof

Like many, I entered the breath through the front door of fire — Wim Hof. His method blew me wide open. It taught me how powerful breath could be. I learned to go deep, to override pain, to access a stillness I didn’t know was there. And I’m grateful for that.

But here’s the thing:
I had no idea what I was doing.
Neither, it seemed, did he — at least in terms of respiratory science.

I became a hyperventilator.
I trained myself to breathe through my mouth.
I felt high… but not well.

It worked, in a way. It cracked me open. But it also made me worse — more tense, more wired, more disembodied. I didn’t realize it then. But the seed had been planted.

The Second Door: Subtlety & Science

Years later, I discovered somatics. Subtle breath. Nervous system repair.

This wasn’t about force — it was about feeling.
I learned the value of nose breathing, of carbon dioxide tolerance, of breathing less to feel more.

This was profound. Life-changing.
It brought my nervous system down from the edge and helped me rebuild my health.

But eventually, I noticed something strange.
I was breathing less… but I was also feeling less.
The tension in my chest, my ribs, my pelvic floor — it wasn’t going away. It was hiding. I was using “subtle” to veil what needed to be seen.

I wasn’t wrong. I just wasn’t done.

The Third Door: Integration

The next evolution came through the ancient paths — pranayama, kriya, traditional yogic breathing.
Breath as prana. Not just air.

I revisited Wim Hof — but this time, with awareness.
I didn’t hyperventilate blindly.
I used strong breathwork to shake things loose, to break through stuck patterns, to wake up pranic channels and stir vitality.

And then I let it go.
I returned to the subtle.
But now, it was real.

What I’ve Learned

There’s no single right way to breathe.
There’s no final technique.

What matters is relationship — with breath, body, nervous system, and awareness.

I use strong breath to access energy.
I use soft breath to restore peace.
I teach both — because you need both.

But the goal is always the same:
To train the body to breathe lightly, effortlessly, and through the nose.
That’s the breath of healing. That’s the breath of life.

Next time, I’ll share the exact sequence I now teach — the one that weaves all these paths into one method. Until then, I’ll leave you with this:

The breath will take you where your mind can’t go.
And if you let it… it will bring you back to yourself.