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Throughout all these activities, there is a focus and emphasis on consciously controlling the breathing. Breathing is essential to life and to the purification of life. Breathing connects the physical and emotional states. Beginning students of aikido will tend to hold their breath as a stress reaction when practicing. Eventually, students will naturally synchronize their breathing with their movement and their training partner's. Breathing creates the connection and joining of the two into one. This process is spiritual and purifying.

Common to the misogi practice is the ability to keep the mind calm and clear, as in mushin, while the body is undergoing severe, often repetitive, experiences. Taking a very cold shower while keeping the mind calm is a common, very private, form of misogi. O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was often known to pour cold water over himself to start the day. Another commonly available form of misogi is the use of saunas to provide extreme heat conditions and an opportunity for the mind to be disciplined and to overcome the body's reaction to discomfort.