The Harmony of Breathing Ancient Chinese Daoist Techniques For Transformation
Breathing is the keystone of sound health and will improve your body, mind and spirit in quite incredible ways. By using this ancient Daoist abdominal breathing technique as an anchor for all your activities, you will EASILY start to improve your health and INSTANTLY become more energetic. You can amplify the benefits of diet and exercise and also feel the difference it makes in any self-healing or professional energy healing work. It does require a little time and concentration but it’s well worth the effort. The more practice you put towards helping yourself, the better your results will be.
We take breathing for granted. After all, we do it all day every day of our lives don’t we? How complicated can it be? You just breathe in and then breathe out again don’t you? The big thing most of us are missing is that we breathe mindlessly, without care or thought to the amazing process that’s taking place inside our bodies. Would you believe, breathing is the biggest interaction you have with your environment. When you inhale, the air around you actually becomes part of you and when you exhale, part of you actually becomes merged with the air around you. How miraculous is that? You actually merge with your surroundings! This is a foundational aspect of achieving Union and Harmony between you and the entire Universe.
Poor Breathing is a Barrier to Success: Poor O2/CO2 balance in the blood can cause problems in human function. If you haven’t trained your body to breathe better, the chances are your subconscious daytime breathing pattern is, by default, set to shallow chest breathing. This is a learned stress response, which started back in your childhood when your teachers and parents conditioned you to “sit down and be quiet”. Breathing correctly is a tremendous tool for personal empowerment. It has a direct effect on your voice. All singers and public speakers are taught breathing techniques. It helps you to stay calm in stressful situations and encourages correct posture so you can stand tall and project strength.
The reasons most of us have learned to breathe badly are 3 fold: 1. Limited lung use. Your diaphragm is the sheet of muscle underneath your lungs, which causes them to expand and contract. By sitting, you can limit the range of motion this important muscle. Over long periods of sitting down, adaptive shortening happens between your ribs and in your abdomen, pulling your torso down. Your diaphragm tightens up like a drum skin and moves less and less. The rib cage now has to take over as the main engine for expansion and contraction of your lungs. This means you aren’t effectively using the bottom two thirds of your lungs! 2. Stressed out: The 21st Century is a stressful place to live. Vehicles moving around you, work deadlines and social demands are high stress factors and there is constant danger, noise and excitement all around. To the primitive, survival part of your brain this is a high-risk environment, so your body releases the so-called “stress hormones” cortisol and adrenaline to prepare you for crisis and the fight or flight response. Most of the time the “crisis” is simply your busy life, so the urgent action your body anticipates never happens. But you now have these chemicals floating around your system. They cause you to breathe from the muscles in your chest because you never used them up with action when your body thought you needed them.
3. Faster but not better: Because you are only using 1/3 of your lung capacity and are stressed out, your nervous system sends messages to your chest to work faster in order to exchange more air. So you inhale in a fast way. Just observe how people breathe under pressure or when they are upset. But, studies actually show that gaseous exchange mostly happens when we breathe OUT! By improving the way you breathe, and synchronising it with the way you move, you will live longer, perform better and quite simply get more out of life.
There are 3 main breathing techniques in Daoist Internal Alchemy practices: 1. Chest (and shoulder) breathing 2. Abdominal breathing 3. Skin breathing. Breathing techniques can go from the simple to the very complex but the simple stuff works on the highest levels when you practice and do it properly. 5 minutes here and there once in a while will make you feel a bit better, but breathing is like eating; we need to do it correctly every day in order to maintain our levels of energetic sustenance. Breathing practice is a preventative measure, so we should be in the habit of doing it properly and well before any issues ever arise. Be diligent don’t stop practicing and prepare to help yourself more than you ever have before‌
Chest Breathing This type of breathing uses the ribs like a bellows, to inflate and compress the top 1/3rd of the lungs, forcing gaseous exchange to take place. Chest breathing is actually a function of stress on the human body. It forces more air into the lungs; for example in actions like sobbing or growling. In Ancient Chinese Medicine, the chest and lung is associated with the character of the tiger, and the emotion of sadness. So it’s no surprise that in today’s urban world, where we are under more or less constant stress, leading us to use chest breathing as a habit because our body is regularly on alert for danger, that depression is a common condition! Using only shallow chest breathing can often cause or worsen chest pains. You’ll probably find that when you get stressed, your breathing and tension lifts right back up into your chest. You can then struggle to breathe and what should be an effortless and easy movement is suddenly tiring, full of tension and causing you postural distortions, muscle pain and even headaches. Chest breathing takes more energy than abdominal breathing, requires you to breathe faster and makes you anxious. You will probably find it difficult to breathe out and you’ll feel exhausted. You might even start to worry about where the next breath is coming from.
You can start to feel trapped and panicky and try to control your breathing by slowing it down, which then interferes with your natural body chemistry. Panting, or forced repeated shallow chest breathing leaves a residual tidal volume of Carbon Dioxide in your lungs making your blood more acidic and making you cranky and bad tempered.
Discover if You’re Just Chest Breathing… Put your left hand on your tummy directly over your belly button and your right hand on your chest, just above your sternum. Then, take as deep a breath as you can and feel what happens. Did your rib cage lift up? Did your shoulders lift up? Did your neck tighten up? If these things are happening to you, you’re doing too much with your chest. Now sniff in quickly through the nose – did your tummy push your hand out? No? In that case you are definitely chest breathing!
Skin Breathing It may be surprising to most people, but “skin breathing” actually, really means we are physically breathing through our skin. It’s not alluding to some other non-breathing related practice or a mystical, imagined force of any kind. Some land animals have skin so thin that gases can easily pass through it. Biologically we say that they have a ‘permeable skin’. Earthworms and amphibians have a skin permeable to gases.
With specific training, the Ancient Chinese Daoist texts reveal that humans can improve their oxygen uptake and Anion exchange in the atmosphere through skin breathing. This training can take a lifetime and we won’t be covering it here, but the old ancestors claimed it could be done with astounding results on longevity and health.
Abdominal Breathing The Emperor of breathing techniques, so pay attention now… When we are babies and when we are asleep, we breathe from the abdomen. When we’re engaged in this form of breathing, we use the bottom two thirds of the lungs to increase our vital capacity and absorb more oxygen. This kind of breathing massages the internal organs, keeps them nourished, healthy and strong and boosts the vital signs and levels of oxygen in the body for healing and health. As we saw with the chest and lungs, which have the emotion of sadness associated with them, in Ancient Chinese Medicine the other internal organs also have emotions associated. So abdominal breathing is also a way to achieve emotional health. There are other benefits too:
The spine is massaged and manipulated Cerebro-spinal fluids are circulated to nourish the brain and spine The abdominal muscles become stronger and more elastic.
This abdominal way of breathing then, is the key to taking the first steps towards a life of health and vitality, balance and harmony and boosting your immune system and improving your internal processes. Wow! Let’s get started.
8 Steps to Better Breathing Step 1 Take several deep breaths into the chest through the nose and completely exhale through the mouth – this is to oxygenate your system. Step 2 Then take a huge breath in and breathe out through your mouth until your chest and abdomen are completely empty. Draw your belly button in towards your spine to squeeze out every last gasp of air. Step 3 At the same time as you are pulling in your abdomen to exhale, lift up your pelvic floor as if you’re stopping yourself from going to the toilet. Step 4 Now close your mouth and push out your abdomen whilst at the same time dropping the pelvic floor downwards. Air will rush in through your nose and into the bottom part of your lungs. Be careful not to allow the chest to kick in. Your body’s impulse will be to expand your ribs to inhale. Use your mind to control it and prevent the chest from expanding.
Step 5 When you can push your tummy out no more and the bottom part of your lungs is full of air, swallow saliva and open the back of your throat. Step 6 Controlling the airway with your glottis at the back of your throat, allow the air to escape in a smooth and controlled way. Step 7 As the air leaves your lungs, pull the abdomen in towards your spine, squeezing all of the air out. Ensure that you breathe out for twice as long as you breathed in for. This will ensure maximum exchange of gases in the lung and optimize your intake of oxygen. Step 8 At this point your chest will want to kick in. Do not allow it, but instead go back to step 1, closing your mouth and drawing the air into the vacuum of your lung by pushing out your abdomen once again. Safety First During your practice, you might feel a bit of tingling or faintness and dizziness as the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in your blood change. If you do experience this, lie down on the floor with your feet higher than your head and breath big sighs from your chest to regain balance.
8 Keys to Success In the classic texts on the subject of this abdominal breathing technique, the ancient sages describe 8 keys that you should employ whilst performing the sequence in order to ensure maximum success: 1. Your mind should be calm and your face relaxed. 2. Each breath should feel like a cool, slender wisp trickling down your trachea. 3. Ensure that each breath is as deep as possible. 4. Not only should your breath be deep, it should also be long. Your lungs should expand length ways not width ways. 5. Do not hold your breath, the act of breathing from the abdomen should be a continuous flowing motion. 6. Each breath should feel smooth as silk gently brushing the inside of your throat. 7. Take your time; the breath should be slow and controlled. Take twice as long exhaling as you to inhale. 8. Keep everything as soft as possible throughout the breath, so you only use the deep internal muscles.
6 Stages of Abdominal Breathing Development When you understand and begin to practice this abdominal breathing technique, there are six stages to mastering it, which you will want to implement and become aware of as you progress. Stage One: Count the timing of your breaths. This will help you get focused on what you’re doing and minimise your attention down to one thing, the counting. Ensure you breathe out for twice the time you breathe in to get maximum oxygen uptake. The principle of focusing on one thing at a time is called “ShaoYi” literally translated as ‘guarding one’. It is the main principle of ancient Chinese meditation and helps us train the entire process to be subconscious. Stage Two: Follow your breath inward and outward with your mind. Try to physically experience the path of the air as it merges with your body. For example, notice how far down into your abdomen you can feel the breath reaching. Stage Three: The movements become subconscious and you find yourself simply doing them, becoming part of them and them becoming part of you.
Stage Four: You can analyse your breathing objectively as it works away and you notice sensations taking place in your body as you infuse it with more Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide. Observe other sensations you begin to feel and where in the body. Stage Five: You notice you’ve made your improved breathing process a normal part of the way your body behaves. This means it’s now become part of your autonomic nervous system and is programmed into your subconscious. Stage Six: Keep training to develop your abdominal breathing over time. You’ll increase your lung capacity and purify your breath and your blood. You body’s ions align and polarize, improving the way haemoglobin bonds with oxygen in your blood.
Even if it feels difficult at first, keep going, never give up and teach your body a skill that will serve you for life.
‘All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy and great things in that which is small.’ Lao Tzu With kind permission this manual was edited and adapted by RJ Raymond from a report originally written by her teacher Jason Dean;
‘Breathing Skills for DaoYin TaiJiQuan. Special Technique Report.’
ShiFu Jason Dean, Shi Xing Lik, is a 32nd generation ShaoLin Layman Monk and teaches DaoYin TaiJiQuan and ShaoLin QiGong classes in Leeds UK. Copies of the original are available for download at: www.templeholistic.co.uk
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