Breathing to feel: the centre of a tantric session

The first thing that speeds up

Notice what your breath does when you are running late, when you argue or when you check your email on a Sunday. It shortens, rises to the chest and becomes irregular. You did not change it: the hurry did. And the good thing is that it works both ways. If the breath comes back down, the rest of the body follows.

That is why at Noir Tantra the breath is not a technical detail: it is the centre of the session. Before my hands do anything, the breath is already setting the pace at which everything else will go.

How it changes the way of feeling

When you breathe fast, attention is in the future: on what is coming, on what you have to do. When you breathe slowly, attention returns to the present, and the present is where the sensations are. It is neither magic nor philosophy: you simply cannot feel in detail what is happening now while the mind is two steps ahead.

In the room it shows immediately. People who arrive breathing short feel the massage as something that happens to them; those who manage to lengthen the breath feel it as something they are in. The difference is not in my hands, it is in their air.

Two exercises for before the session

No technique or experience needed. These two exercises can be done on the metro, in the parked car or sitting in the studio's waiting room.

1. Lengthen the exhalation

   Breathe in through the nose counting to four and let the air out, also through the nose, counting to six. Do not force it. If six is too much, five. Repeat ten times and notice where the breath is, whether in the chest or the abdomen.

2. Count breaths

   Close your eyes and count each exhalation, from one to ten. If you lose track or reach eleven without noticing, go back to one without getting annoyed. Losing track is part of the exercise: what it trains is coming back.

On the menu

All Noir Tantra experiences begin with the breath, but there is one that puts it in the foreground: Bio Tantra Experience, inspired by my training in Bio Tantra and focused on breathing, body attention and connection with the present moment. Before you book it I explain the specific practices.

If you want to understand the other principles that hold a session together, presence, connection and wellbeing, they are explained in The art of tantra.

Reviewed on 22 October 2026.