The main idea behind Breema -- if I may put it this way -- is that we all have too many ideas. We're constantly trapped in our minds, and our minds are always occupied with the past or the future. We even impose ideas on our bodies: a body is ugly or beautiful, tall or short, healthy or sick.

But if you want your body to be in a state of well-being, it doesn't make much sense to treat your ideas about your body -- it makes sense to treat the body that actually is. This is what Breema aims to do.

In order to avoid falling into the trap of ideas, the Breema practitioner aims to stay with his or her direct experience during a Breema session. That means, for example, that the practitioner doesn't try to make your ankle or your back feel better -- because the practitioner has no direct way to know how your ankle or back is feeling, other than through the ideas conveyed by your words or body language. For that matter, even the notions of "ankle" and "back" are ideas. (Just as national borders are imaginary divisions that we impose on the Earth, body parts are convenient but imaginary divisions that we tend to impose on the body.)

Fundamentally, the only thing the Breema practitioner -- or any of us, for that matter -- has direct experience of is his or her own body. And that's what the practitioner pays attention to during the Breema session. When the practitioner can bring his or her own body to comfort, the recipient's body becomes comfortable as well. When the practitioner can directly experience the life in his or her own body, the recipient shares in that experience. (After all, there's really no division between the practitioner and recipient. Like "ankle" or "back," the notions of "you" and "I" are merely ideas -- imaginary dividing lines that we impose on existence -- since none of us exists apart from everything else that exists.)

If all this sounds too icky or "new agey" for you, that's okay -- you're not required to subscribe to any particular philosophy in order for Breema to be effective. Your mind can believe whatever it wants; in the meantime, Breema speaks directly to your body.