The Tao of Natural Breathing (21 page)

PRACTICE

To prepare for this practice, sit or stand in the basic posture. Put your hands on your belly, and sense your weight sinking downward. Breathe naturally into your abdomen, letting it expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale. Continue in this way until you can really sense your belly from the inside. Now let your chest, and especially your sternum, sink downward. Sense how your chest relaxes as this sinking movement takes place. Take several more abdominal breaths, allowing your chest to remain motionless.

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Expel the air with sharp exhalations

When you feel ready, expel the air from your lungs through your nose with a strong contraction of your abdominal wall. In other words, exhale by drawing your belly back toward your spine in one rapid movement. The effect of this movement is to push your diaphragm upward, thus expelling air from your lungs. After the exhalation, let your lungs automatically refill themselves without any effort on your part and without any intentional pause. Let the vacuum you have created in your chest do the work.
Your lungs will probably fill to about one-half of their capacity; in any event, do not let them refill completely before your next forced exhalation.
Again, contract your abdominal wall, forcibly expelling the air from your lungs. Put your attention completely on the exhalation; let the inhalation take care of itself. Continue breathing in this way, starting at a rate of one complete breath every three or four seconds and gradually working to a rate of one every second (over many weeks and months).

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Check for unnecessary tension

The key to this practice is to be sure that your breath is being regulated by your abdominal contractions and expansions. Scan your chest, neck, shoulders, and face to make sure that they remain relaxed. People often grimace when they try this exercise, and the unnecessary tension closes off the nasal passages and constricts the flow of both breath and energy. This can cause headaches and other problems. When you find unnecessary tension any place in your body, smile into it, and start again. Do not continue with bellows breathing if you can sense pain or discomfort, especially in your head, chest, or belly. If you do feel pain, take a break and then start again at the beginning, breathing naturally into your belly with full awareness.

Because bellows breathing involves breathing much faster than normal, many people associate it with hyperventilation. If you carry out bellows breathing correctly, however—using not your chest muscles but rather your abdominal muscles—you will not experience the extreme symptoms often associated with hyperventilation, such as intense dizziness, ringing in the ears, and even fainting. You may, however, especially when you first start bellows breathing, feel some dizziness. This dizziness is not just the result of the change in the oxygen/carbon dioxide balance in your blood, but is also a temporary result of opening the energy channels. If you do feel dizzy, or if you feel you aren’t getting enough oxygen, stop bellows breathing, take a long slow inhalation, hold your breath for several seconds, and then exhale. You can do this as many times as necessary. Then start bellows breathing again. At the beginning, start with nine breaths. Then graduate to 18, 36, and so on, over a period of weeks or months until you can breathe for two minutes or more in this way.

Bellows breathing is especially effective in the early morning, in the fresh air, to help jump-start your day. But it can also work wonders when you feel physically, emotionally, or mentally tired, upset, or out of sorts. Whenever you do the exercise, let your belly do the work. Be sure to take clear sensory impressions of yourself both before, during, and after this practice. It is through these impressions that you will improve your practice and understand for yourself the real benefits of bellows breathing.

REVERSE ABDOMINAL BREATHING

Reverse abdominal breathing, traditionally called Taoist breathing, reverses the natural in-and-out movements of the abdomen that one finds in natural breathing. In reverse breathing, the abdomen contracts inward during inhalation and relaxes outward during exhalation. Though reverse breathing offers many of the benefits of natural breathing because of its similar emphasis on moving the abdomen, it is traditionally used by chi kung practitioners, healers, and martial artists to help draw energy deep into their tissues and bones, as well as to direct energy—for storage, for action, or for healing—to any part of their organism. It is also used to build up what is called “guardian chi,” a protective shield of energy around the body that helps ward off negative influences, including bacteria and viruses dangerous to our health. It is thus especially useful to help immune system functioning.

Part of the reason for the great power of this practice is the change in the pressure differential between the chest and abdomen. When the diaphragm moves downward and the belly contracts inward during inhalation, the resulting pressure in the abdomen helps “pack” the breath energy into the abdominal tissues and organs, as well as into the spine. When the diaphragm relaxes upward and the belly relaxes outward during exhalation, the sudden release of pressure guides the energy outward wherever one’s attention is directed. It is therefore extremely important when undertaking reverse breathing to be clear about where one puts one’s attention. Otherwise one’s energy may be quickly lost.

In spite of its many benefits, reverse breathing should only be undertaken when one is quite comfortable with natural abdominal breathing. Without this level of comfort, most people who attempt reverse breathing tense their faces, necks, and chests and draw their diaphragms upward as they inhale. This not only negates the positive effects of the practice, but can also lead to a variety of problems, including chest pain, diarrhea, an increase in heartbeat or blood pressure, and energy stagnation. It can also lead to mental and emotional confusion and a scattering of the energy of awareness.

PRACTICE

Though you can practice reverse breathing in a sitting posture, it is best, especially at the beginning, to use a standing posture. This will make it easier to feel your weight sinking and thus will help counteract any tendency to pull your diaphragm upward as you inhale. To prepare for this practice, do tan tien breathing for several minutes, making sure that your shoulders and chest stay relaxed. Also check to make sure that your diaphragm moves downward as you inhale and upward as you exhale. Breathe in this way until you begin to feel a definite warmth or vibration in your belly.

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Reverse the breathing process

When you feel this warmth, draw your belly slowly back toward your spine as you inhale, and let it relax outward as you exhale. As you inhale, be sure to keep your chest relaxed and to sense your diaphragm moving downward. As it does so, you will feel pressure building up in your lower abdomen, even all the way down to your perineum. If you sense any pressure in your solar plexus area, you need to relax your chest more and to be sure that your diaphragm is moving downward as you inhale. One way to support this relaxation is to let your shoulders move slightly forward and to sense your sternum shifting slightly downward.

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Guide the energy to specific areas

As reverse breathing begins to become more natural to you, start paying more attention to the quality of the energy being packed into your abdomen as you inhale. As you exhale, allow this energy to expand outward to nourish your entire body. You can also use your attention to help guide this energy to any particular part of your body that you wish to help heal. If you’re having a problem in a particular area, continue to inhale into your abdomen, but visualize and sense your breath energy going to the problem area as you exhale.

APPENDIX 2

The Psychological Dimensions of the Microcosmic Orbit

According to Taoist master Mantak Chia, each of the energy centers of the microcosmic orbit influences our emotions in a particular way, depending on the degree to which the center is opened or closed. In my own personal work with the microcosmic orbit, it has become quite clear to me that learning how to sense these various centers, or points, helps open them so that energy can flow more freely throughout the organism. This work with sensation is also a direct path to self-knowledge.

The following outline of the energy centers and their emotional influences (derived mainly from Mantak Chia’s teachings and books) is not meant to be exhaustive or final. As you begin to learn how to use your breath to sense your body and emotions in the midst of the daily activities of your life, you may find psychological traits other than those listed associated with these centers. What is certain is that working in this way will bring you to a new understanding of yourself, particularly of the relationship between your physical life and your psychological life.

Navel Center

Taoist sages and Chinese medical practitioners regard the navel center, which includes the lower tan tien, not only as the physical center of the body, but also as the body’s main “storage battery” for chi. As Mantak Chia states: “The navel center was our first connection with the outside world. All oxygen, blood, and nutrients flowed into our fetal forms through this abdominal doorway. As a result, the navel center has a special sensitivity that continues far beyond the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth; it stays with us throughout our entire lives.”
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Closed:
One experiences a lack of psychological balance—a sense of being distracted or critical. One is not open to receive new impressions.

Opened:
One feels a sensation of openness to the world, a sensation of being centered.

Sexual Center

This center—located for women slightly above the pubic bone and between the ovaries, and for men at the base of the penis about one and one-half inches inside the body—is the basic energy “generator” in the human body.

Closed:
One feels an overall lack of energy and little enjoyment from life. One feels self-destructive, negative, and listless.

Opened:
One feels a sense of personal, creative power, and the ability to get things done.

Perineum

The perineum is located between the sexual organs and anus. Because of its anatomical position, it connects the two channels of the microcosmic orbit and serves as the foundation for the inner organs of the abdomen.

Closed:
One feels insecure and lonely. One also fears any kind of change.

Opened:
One feels grounded, rooted to the earth and its healing energies. One also feels a sense of peacefulness.

Sacrum and Coccyx

Though the coccyx and sacrum represent two different locations, we will treat them as one for the purposes of the microcosmic orbit. It is in the sacrum and coccyx that many major nerves from the organs and glands come together, and energy is directed up the spine. It is in this area that the Taoists believe that earth energy and sexual energy are refined and transformed before they move up to the higher centers.