The Pause Principle

CHAPTER 6Take a Breath

Physical and emotional states can be altered by changing the breathing pattern.

—Wilhem Reich

When I was younger, camp was a big part of my life. Those two to three months during summer felt as if they lasted forever at that young age, and it’s really where I found and discovered these two sides of me that to this day I work to balance. On one side of it all, I went to a camp in Algonquin Park in Canada called Tanamakoon. We slept in cabins, no running water, bathed in the lake with salt cans for the leeches, went on canoe trips and backpacking trips, did solo sits where they dropped me for an hour somewhere with only whatever vegetation was around me, and they were making solar cookies before solar was even a thing. This environment and lifestyle made such an impact on me because it was the first time I felt I had time to breathe or space to be, where I felt relaxed. And I loved this space and freedom I found there. Loved it so much I went back years later to become a counselor in training. This was one side of me, and then the other went to Culver Military Academy for three summers. When I tell people this they often wonder what I did to be sent there, and while I did throw some raging parties growing up, it was more that my mom’s brothers had gone there, my sister went for a year, and now it was my turn. What I found out was that there was this other side of me that absolutely loved and thrived on routine. I loved having a packed schedule and something ...