In the Moment with Your Breath!
Issue #007 - April 22, 2011
I would like to extend wishes for a Happy Easter and wonderful Passover to all my Christian and Jewish readers.
In the Moment with Your Breath
In this issue I am going to teach you the breathing method that I use to center myself for creating healing energy. It is a combination of ancient Qi Gong practices and also techniques that I have adapted to my own comfort levels.
The various wisdom traditions teach many different ways to breathe and meditate, and no one is better than another. It either appeals to you personally or it doesn't.
Over the years I have adopted my own style, and I hope you do too. This breathing technique is the one that I have migrated to, that is the most suitable for my personality. I hope that you find it the same for you.
As you may know, the Power inside you is great to create
healing energy. If you are ill or in pain, if you learn this technique, you can heal yourself. The Yogis call this Energy Prana, the Chinese call it Qi or Chi. I suggest you call it whatever feels good to you, be it God/Source/God-in-me/Wisdom/Energy/Prana/Qi. Whatever you are comfortable with.
Start to prepare yourself by finding your comfortable position. It can be a standing pose, like the Yoga Mountain Pose, or what the Chinese call the Wuji pose.
Or it can be sitting. I find the Yoga Hero pose to be helpful one day, and the standing pose better the next. Or you can sit Lotus-style, cross-legged, or simply sit on a comfortable chair.
Or you can use the Corpse pose, a full lying-on-the-back pose. Or you can lie down with your legs up on the sofa, bent so as to support your back, if you have back issues.
Choose the breathing position that appeals to you on your chosen day. It is more important to do the healing breathing
exercise than to worry about your position.
As you settle into your position, slowly start to pay attention to your breath. Breathe in and out. Notice if your chest or your belly moves.
The Chinese believe that with Wuji breathing, on the inhale you should close your mouth and hold your tongue up against the roof of your mouth to close off the orifice. This is to ensure that all the Energy possible is being drawn inward and downward with your breath and not leak out through your nose.
On the exhale, you should open your mouth and lightly blow out the toxic energy through your lips.
Some experts go as far as to tell you to squeeze your anal sphincter as well, during your Wuji breathing, so as not to have any Energy leak out through your anus. Do this if you wish.
As you relax deeper, try to use your belly mostly to do the work of breathing. Imagine your Buddha belly filling up with the life force Energy. Imagine the
downward movement of Energy filling up your belly as you inhale.
Drawing the Energy into the center of yourself is very important with this exercise. The Chinese call this area just below the belly button the Dan Tien, the Yogis call it the 2nd Chakra and the the Japanese call it Hara. I simply call it the Core of My Being. Fill up the Core of your Being with Healing Energy with your inhale. Imagine this Healing Energy filling you with each breath.
Exhale out slowly through your mouth, releasing any built-up toxic waste. Think, inhale the Energy, exhale the toxins. Practice this for several days.
When you get better at directing your breath downward into the core of your being and closing your mouth on the inhale and opening it on the exhale, you may practice the next step.
After you inhale, try holding in the breath or Energy for a second or two before
exhaling. On the exhale, prolong it and hold the end before the next breath for a second or two. Practice this until you get good at it.
This is actually a "pursed breathing" technique that is taught to asthma and other respiratory patients who have difficulty breathing. Medical science is aware that this breathing technique stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the system of nerves for carrying impulses for relaxation and digestion. It is the opposite of the stress-inducing, fight or flight response of the sympathetic nervous system. The ancients understood this before human anatomy and physiology was born!
When you are able to master the pause between the inhales and exhales, you can now learn to direct the Energy outward. If you wish to heal your own body part or a body part of another you can. As you breathe in, imagine the downward flow of Energy into your belly. Then on the exhale, imagine the Energy flowing from the core of
your own being, up your chest, out your arms and down to your hands.
While you do this Energy-directed breathing, if you place your own hands on your lap, you can feel your thighs warm up from the Energy from your hands. I even feel it in a pulsating fashion, to the rhythm of my exhale.
You can direct this healing Energy outward to others far away from you. This is what I do to send healing energy to loved ones and to my clients that I treat as a Holistic Health Coach. As I breathe, I hold my palms up and out and send the healing energy to the person far away.
Or you can physically touch the body part of another to send them healing energy. Or, I even focus my energy to an area of my own body that needs attention. I do this through touch or through imagining the Energy flow directly to that body part from the core of my being.
Keep practicing this
healing energy technique. It will relax you and change your life if you persist with technique.
May the healing Energy be drawn into your soul and may you have immaculate health.
