In the secton of the book ‘A call to consciousness’, Jeanne de Salzmann (1889, 1990) turns from the general observation I am asleep to something very precise, the moment an impression enters. This moment, she suggests, is decisive. It is where consciousness is either lost again, or has a chance to appear.

An impression is anything that comes to us from life, a sound, a word, a look, a sensation, a thought, an emotion. Impressions arrive continuously. We cannot stop them. But what matters is not the impression itself. What matters is how it is received.

De Salzmann describes what usually happens. An impression enters and immediately triggers a reaction. We react automatically, blindly, passively. The reaction may be emotional, intellectual, or physical, but in all cases it happens without our participation. We are already gone. The reaction then becomes our reality. We believe we are present, but we are only responding mechanically.

This is why she says that most of the time we do not really live our life. Life happens to us. We are moved by forces we do not see and do not know. We believe we choose, we believe we act, but in fact we are acted upon. The strings are pulled without our knowing.

The crucial insight in this chapter is that the loss of consciousness happens at the very moment life arrives. The instant an impression is received, there is a choice, even though it is usually invisible. Either we react immediately and fall back into sleep, or there is a tiny pause, an interval, in which attention can appear.

This interval cannot be forced. De Salzmann is very clear about this. Any attempt to control or dominate the moment comes from the ordinary I, the ego, and only strengthens mechanical behavior. What is needed is something else, a quality of openness, a willingness to receive the impression without immediately appropriating it.

She calls this receiving impressions consciously. It is not passive. It requires presence. It requires sensing the body, feeling the breath, and allowing the impression to be there without being swallowed by it. This moment may be very short, but it is real. In that moment, something in us is awake.

For Breath4Balance, this teaching touches the heart of breath practice. Breath is not used to regulate impressions, but to stay present while they are received. When attention rests in the body and breath, even briefly, the impression can be met without immediate reaction. This is not withdrawal from life. It is a deeper participation in it.

A short practice for NOW, receiving an impression

Choose one ordinary situation during the day, hearing a sound, being spoken to, opening a message
At the moment you notice the impression, bring attention to the breath or to a bodily sensation
Do not try to change the reaction
Simply notice what happens inside, thoughts, emotions, impulses
Allow a small pause before responding, even half a second
Then act if action is needed

This practice is not about behaving better. It is about seeing more.

De Salzmann emphasizes that this moment of reception is always a shock. Consciousness does not come gently. It comes as a break in continuity. But this shock is not violent. It is subtle. It may feel like a vibration, a sudden presence, a sense of being here.

She writes that only in such moments can a new perception of oneself appear. Not the image of oneself, but a living sense of being present. Everything depends on how the impression is received.

This is why the work does not aim at changing life, but at changing the way life is met. Consciousness is not added on top of experience. It arises within experience, at the exact moment life touches us.

In the next blog, we will move into the next part of ‘A call to consciousness’, the discovery of the false I and the search for what de Salzmann calls real I, the difference between personality and essence as something lived, not theorized.