Breathing and the Art of Contemplation

By Richard Rudd, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit

Easier than meditation, and more playful than mindfulness, contemplation brings you effortlessly into your natural breath, at any time of day, in any situation.

I believe that anyone can learn to breathe deeply through the Art of Contemplation.

I learned the Art of Contemplation out of necessity, to help cope with the many challenges of being a parent. One day I realised that I had lost all sense of calm. I had allowed myself to become overwhelmed by the sudden increase in my responsibilities. I felt I had lost all my youthful freedom and could see no clear way of finding it again. I felt trapped, isolated, and lost. I had lost touch with the rhythm of my true breath.

Then, one day while visiting a friend, I became entranced by a painting on her wall. It was a simple image of a lone seagull in flight against a sea of blue. That painting stirred something deep inside my soul. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The bird seemed so silent, pure, and free in that spotless sky. Every time I thought of the image, I began to feel like that bird. My breath deepened and I felt open and free once again. It was as though the painting had cast a magical spell over me.

I only had to remember the image in my mind and almost immediately my breath dropped into my belly and I was flooded by a feeling of deep calm and limitless freedom.

Over the months following this encounter, I returned over and over again to the image of the seagull in my mind. I opened up to the power of contemplation. Whenever I thought of the seagull, my whole being paused, and for a short time I let go of the outer world and its distractions. I also learned to conjure up the image in my mind during difficult moments or conflicts, which gave amazing results. I experienced the power of pivoting, the ability to turn a difficult situation into a gift. In my relationships, this changed everything — instead of contracting when faced with a conflict, I taught myself to breathe deeply, staying soft and open-hearted. I continue to learn this lesson today.

In time, I forgot all about the seagull. The memory of it only came back to me today, as I sat down to write these words. For me, that image was a doorway into contemplation — and once I knew how to find the door, I no longer needed the image itself. Since then, I have found countless other pathways into the contemplative state. All of them cause my breathing to deepen and help me to come into a natural rhythm.

It has taken me many years to learn the Art of Contemplation, but it is the greatest and most useful art I have ever learned. Easier than meditation, and more playful than mindfulness, contemplation brings you effortlessly into your natural breath, at any time of day, in any situation.

The Art of Contemplation is a masterpiece of distilled wisdom. Poetic, refined and yet eminently practical, it introduces you to the technique at the core of the Gene Keys, and indeed of all paths towards wisdom. As the opening sentence states: There is no problem in your life that cannot be resolved through the Art of Contemplation. This book shows you how to bring the magic of contemplation into every corner of your life, resulting in a deep sense of spaciousness, calm, and clarity that is so rare in our modern world. A diamond of a book that you will turn to over and over again.

Explore and learn more about Richard Rudd, the Gene Keys, and The Art of Contemplation.

A teacher, mystic, and award-winning poet, Richard Rudd’s inner journey began early in life as he experienced strange energies rushing throughout his body, culminating in a major spiritual experience at the age of 29. Emerging from what he calls “a field of limitless light” that lasted 3 days and 3 nights, Richard was entrusted with a sacred teaching — the wisdom of the Gene Keys .

A born explorer, Richard has studied with great teachers in the East, traveled through the Himalayas, the Pacific, the Americas, and the Arctic. Earning a Master’s Degree in metaphysics and literature from Edinburgh University, he went on to work in the film industry in Australia, trained as a teacher of Chi Kung in Thailand, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a small yacht. During this time he lived in Manhattan, Oregon, and Hawaii before finally returning to the UK in 1998, where he met his wife Marian. Over the following years, they had three children and moved to Devon in southern England. Throughout his adventures, Richard has explored his love of writing and in 2006 he won the FISH international poetry award in Ireland.

All Richard’s travels and studies coalesced into a synthesis in 2002 when he began to write and conceive the The Gene Keys . It took seven years to write the book and understand its teachings and applications. Today Richard continues to expand the wisdom that he was gifted, remaining always a student of the Gene Keys while teaching all around the world.

In 2019, Richard was named on the Watkins list of The 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.