The Five Tibetans by Christopher S. Kilham

Author:Christopher S. Kilham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Health/Exercise
ISBN: 9781594778087
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2011-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

THE NORMAL BREATH

Sit in a comfortable position, either cross-legged or in a straight-backed chair. Keep your spine erect, sitting as tall and well aligned as possible. Relax your shoulders and chest. Place one hand with the palm on your abdomen so you can easily feel what is happening during the exercise. Placing your hand on your abdomen will not be necessary once you are familiar with this manner of breathing.

Take a light breath through the nose, letting your abdomen fill and expand outward with the breath. Exhale through either the nose or mouth, relaxing the belly. During this exercise your chest should not move at all. This breath is much like filling a balloon—as you inhale through your nose, your abdomen expands. As you exhale through the nose or mouth, your abdomen collapses. As simple as this sounds, it is very important to beginning breath practice, so go over this exercise repeatedly. Practice easy, gentle breathing for about two minutes, expanding the abdomen as you inhale through the nose and letting the abdomen collapse as you gently exhale through the nose or mouth.

This is the manner of relaxed breathing that you should maintain throughout the day. From this practice you may find that you have been breathing in a different way, sucking in your abdomen upon inhaling. This is altogether too common, and it may feel strange to reverse your habitual breathing style. Do persevere. Though it takes practice and concentration to retrain yourself to breathe properly, the benefits of normal, full-belly breathing are enormous.

Please note that it is important to inhale through your nose whenever possible. Inhaling through the mouth bypasses breath-regulating mechanisms and can cause dizziness, nervousness, and other physical and emotional problems. Be sure to inhale regularly through the nose. Exhalation may be either through the nose or mouth.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.