The Art of Breathing. Walking retreat in Bolivia.

Our intent is to show that through the simplicity of breathing and walking, the human can be a channel of change – a self-healer, planetary healer, a healer of consciousness. The human body and the planetary body find fluid movement so that both can dance.

The high altitude of the Andes presents an immediate problem – how to breathe? You can’t simply arrive and move around how you did before. You would end up panting, tired and frustrated. Even if on the first day you want to walk down a small road and walk up again, you have to learn to breathe differently, and to do this you have to think differently.

How to breathe? What energy is being taken in and what energy is going out with each breath? If we want to walk around the lake, up the hill, then we need energy. We learn how to enhance the energy that we take in with our breath through a simple opening of thought, utilising the energies that are around us, above us and below us.

We explore different forms of breathing – the masculine breath, the feminine breath; breath of the earth and breath of the sun, breath of the lake and of the mountain. Breath of the universe. We do this in a spectacular landscape of mountains and the highest navigable lake in the world.

We will ask for the help of the indigenous culture, learning how to access the breath of the earth and of the sky through their traditional ways. Particularly on the island of the Sun, we open to learn how to receive the mystical texture of ‘time’, and through managing the ‘breath of time’ open up possibilities in our personal and planetary futures that would not have been perceived before.

There are two parts of this journey. The first part is a ten day journey to La paz, Tiwanaku, lago titikaka and the island of the sun. This is suitable for people with generally good health. The walks are paced gradually to acclimatise to the altitude. The second part, we are based at an indigenous lodge in the high Andes. The walks are a little more energetic, but by the time we reach here, you would be well acclimatized.