minimum program length: 16 hours

If we were capable of forming every whole while taking air into account, our totalities would lose their systematic and authoritarian nature. They would also remain capable of transformation in order to enter into relations with an other, or to form a community with others, without each losing their singularity. A cultivation of our breathing, of our breath, allows us to be more malleable, to adapt ourselves to a situation without submitting to it.
— Luce Irigaray

Oftentimes, out of the blue, a student sends a message describing a breakthrough: the emergence of something that they suddenly perceived/ felt/ integrated. Arising from work that's been established in the breath for quite some time, an experience had finally navigated its way through in its very own time-space.

The mere manifestation of the potential of breath to produce knowledge is an incredible act of power, resistance, and self-determination, even more so when facing the challenges of the aggressive social construct that most of us are subjected to, namely the rule of speed, stress, and separation.

Breath is what all living beings share without discrimination. It is our most reliable and accessible tool for both self-empowerment and connection.

Breath is non-hierarchical, non-authoritarian, supportive, and always responsive. It cannot be monetized, possessed, bought, sold, extracted, or exhibited.

Breath-based pedagogy, therefore, is of no interest to consumerist, control-driven, or achievement-oriented socio-economic systems.

But how does breath support our individual and collective health?

As a perpetual student of breath, Yalda Younes considers that a profound venture into the forest of respiration leads to an inquiry into the interconnectedness of all things. By deepening the understanding of the relationship between the inhale and the exhale (gateway to all internal bodily systems), a regular tending to breath translates into a deeper understanding of the nature of movement and relationships with other living beings, structures of power, and natural forces.

The subtle layers of breath movements are endlessly beautiful. So gentle, yet so potent. And despite occasional breakthroughs punctuating long realms of patience, an inquisitive practice never reaches an endpoint. Because, like all matter, the body (including the mind) is subject to continuous change. An anchoring practice is thus the process of observing and working with these internal changes in relation to external changes and constants, such as the vital life force, or prana, and the gravitational force, or apana.

Younes' teachings of fundamentals of breath facilitate innumerable explorations of dynamic relationships, such as those between: