Healing through The Miracle of the Breath by: Margaret Mary McGovern Reprinted with permission from Body / Mind / Spirit Magazine "The breath holds the key to all healing"

When Andy Caponigro tells you to watch your breath, he means it, literally. The master breath and bodywork therapist uses ancient breathing techniques to aid the many people who arrive with a variety of ailments at his workshops or at his office in Hadley, Massachusetts.

"The breath is the greatest of all natural wonders. Even more, it is the greatest of all miracles. It not only provides direct access to some of the most powerful healing energies in the universe, it also contains a master key to understanding some of the deepest mysteries of human existence," says Caponigro, who has taught doctors, therapists and other breathwork clinicians for more than 25 years.

A former concert guitarist, Andy came to his healing work quite by accident. "While I was teaching music to my students, I found that some played better than others because of their relative lack of anxiety and their ability to concentrate well." he said. At that time he was studying yoga and meditation for his own benefit but soon found that he was teaching his breathing techniques to his music students to help them relax and improve their focus. Andy found that by getting his students to breathe better, their playing improved. The key was to help his students concentrate more effectively on the music by lessening their tension and fear.

One day, a student asked Andy to work with his brother who was having pain and headaches from a spinal tap that doctors had given him, but which they couldn't relieve with medications. Although Andy was hesitant because he was not a licensed practitioner, the student insisted. So Andy saw the young man and taught him some breathing techniques to help him with his pain. "The treatment worked within ten minutes, and I charged him for the healing session as if it was a regular music lesson," says Andy, who was now moving further away from his music and into a new field—a new journey for his life.

That journey eventually took him to India where he studied yoga and learned about Prana—the divine life force that makes it possible for us to breathe. With time, he also learned about "Primordial Breathing," the breathwork of the Chinese sages that uses the powers of the spiritual energy which they call Chi. Most importantly, he learned that the same breathing techniques which the Eastern sages practiced to attain enlightenment, were also useful for mastering fear, healing illnesses and increasing longevity.

Andy would pass his new-found knowledge of breathing techniques on to his students along with various kinds of bodywork therapies he learned along the way. The more he learned, and the more of his work he shared with his students, the more he found himself treating other professional musicians who had strained their muscles from playing their instruments in forced or cramped positions. Before long, Andy found himself not only treating patients with diseases like arthritis, lupus, migraine headaches and asthma, but also treating doctors and health practitioners who were so stressed out that they too needed to learn how to "watch their breath."

Working Out With Andy

Andy introduces people to his healing techniques by conducting Miracle of The Breath Workshops around the country. A breathing workshop I attended with Andy in Hatfield, Massachussets, is at best, a happening. There were about a dozen men and women wearing sweats and socks, all sitting comfortably in a circle listening to the short, slightly gray-haired man who in minutes could change their lives, perhaps forever.

Andy begins by telling you to breathe gently and get in touch with the rhythm of your own breath. With eyes closed and breath now steady, we relax as he and his assistant circle the room, seeking out those who are in a state of intense pain or fear. As he works, he seems to be everywhere in the room, getting people to breathe and let go of their pain. In some instances, he intercepts the pain with his own breath so that the person can relax for a moment and try to attain some balance.

Suddenly, Andy finds someone in need and begins working on her. He tells the mid-age woman to meditate on her breathing while focusing on the pain in her back. As he strokes her back and shoulders, he tells this woman to make friends with her fear and keep trusting her breath. As Andy works where the pain is located, his own breath vibrates like a vacuum cleaner. He sometimes utters some guttural and "whooshing" sounds that appear to be some ancient language that none of us knows. Some of the sounds appear to be American Indian healing cries.

The rest of us are in awe of the process, and slightly envious that she is getting in touch with some old, old blockage. Soon the moment has passed and he is back to tell us that the key to understanding the whole human race is "repressed fear," and it can only be cleansed from our system by getting in touch with our most precious asset—our blessed breath which controls all experiences of pain and fear. Over the past twenty-five years, Andy has worked on a broad range of illnesses, both physical and psychological, from chronic pain and cardiac problems to anxiety, insomnia and depression. He has also had great success working with asthmatics where breath is often at a premium.

Andy has recently completed a book titled, The Miracle of the Breath (New World Library) in which he describes the spiritual origins and therapeutic applications of the ancient systems of breath-control developed by the Eastern masters. The Miracle of The Breath is a complete and self contained instruction manual for learning how to use one's breath for mastering fear, healing illness and experiencing the Divine.