The Importance of Breathing;

No matter how much I emphasize the importance of breathing, it won’t be enough.

Breathing is the base of our bodily engine system and enables us to live on.

Therefore most people think they know how to breathe and it’s easily neglected, but here I want you to know of the right way of breathing and the benefit of it.

In Chinese, the air is called kong qi – spatial energy or energy from the space.

Ancient Chinese must have known the importance of breathing; breathing is absorbing the vital energy from the universe.

zhuang zi, the chapter of ke yi(4^TH Century B.C during the warring states period) said of the principles of breathing,

“Exhale the old qi and inhale the new qi.”

; the old qi can be such as negative energy, co2, the toxicity and so on and the new qi such as positive energy, o2 and so on.

ge hong’s bao pu zi(A.D.283-343) said,

“The more should be inhaled and the less exhaled.”

; ge hong’s idea is how to keep the qi inside more and not leaking or less.

And we could find more books and articles of lower chakra or dan tian breathing in Indian yogic practice and qigong, both put a enormous emphasis on abdominal breathing, deep breathing like a baby.

Look at a baby or your lovely dogs. How do they breathe?

They breathe deep and comfortable with stomach region, and it seems so natural and easy.

Then why most of people forget this baby breathing, once we all did?

As we grow old with stresses – anger, frustration, fear or anxiety, we became shallow chest breather because of fight-or-flight response, which depends on chest breathing for quick, short bursts of oxygen. Eventually body gets used to shallow breathing.

What is the stress?

Stress is animal instinct of fight or flight response or self-defense system in other words.

Under the stress, your body will need more energy so that heart beats will become faster and your breathing also will become faster and shorter to supply more blood to the muscles of Limbs, not the brain and digestive system. Therefore it can cause you to have headache, stomachache, muscle pain, sleep disorder and fatigue and so on.

So now imagine you have a body that perceives itself to be in stress all the time, your body will need that chest short breathing and some time later, your body keep that breathing patterns, and this activates the body’s stress response system unnecessarily, emitting stress related hormones.

Evaluate your stress level

1. Head feels heavy and cloudy, and you get tired frequently.
2. You get dizzy frequently.
3. You have stiffness and pain in the neck.
4. Your tongue has more white coating on it than usual.
5. You have indigestion such as bloating, gas, belching and so on.
6. Shoulder feels heavy and tension with upper back and knee pain.
7. When you get up in the morning, you still feel tired and heavy so your day starts sluggish.
8. It is hard to focus on the work
9. It is hard to fall asleep and during sleep, you have lots of dream.
10. You have heart palpitation and cold extremities.
11. You tend to avoid social meetings and a crowd of people.

Normal: 0-3, moderate: 4-6, serious: 7-: change your life style and seek out the professional advice.

Frequent dizziness

Head feels heavy and cloudy, and frequently tired Head feels heavy and cloudy, and frequently tiredFind out how to remove the stress by changing your breathing pattern.

Abdominal breathing- Relax the diaphragm.

First take two-three deep breaths, exhaling fully through the mouth. Then slowly breathe in while expanding your lower abdomen to the count of four. Then slowly breathe out while contracting your lower abdomen to the count of 4. Focus on breathing rhythmically and try not to move your chest.

Inhale through your nose to a count of 4 and exhale either through your mouth or the nose to a count of 4 and then pause for a count of 2.

As you become more comfortable with this breathing, you can increase the length of time of inhalation, exhalation and the pauses between them.

: 4:16:8:4(inhalation:pause:exhalation:pause), 4:7:8(inhalation:pause:exhalation)

Practice this breathing for 10-15 minutes twice a day in the morning after you wake up and in the evening before you go to bed and also at any time during the day(except immediately after meals). Though simple, if practiced regularly, this exercise can greatly benefit the health of your mind and body

If you find yourself often hold your breath under the stress, which tightens your muscle in the jaw, neck and shoulder region.

Exhalation is more emphasized because if you do it deep, natural inhalation just will follow it.

Four easy steps to break the stress cycle – Bernadette Johnson, director of the integrative medicine program at Greenwich hospital, Connecticut.

1. Stop what you’re doing.
2. Breathe using your stomach (abdominal breathing) with a few deep breaths, allowing gut to expand with air. Do not breathe using the chest, which most of us do normally. Count 1 to 4 while inhaling, then count down from 4 to 1.- inhale through the nose and exhale from the mouth, but you can do whatever is comfortable.
3. Think about the cause of your stress, deliberating its importance n the scheme of things. For example, a computer crashes and you get angry. Clearly, seething won’t change or resolve the situation.
4. Rectify the problem with a viable solution.

Alternate nostril breathing – qigong empowerment by Liang, shou yu.

Movement and Visualization:

Preparation: relax your arms, and bend your body forward, three times. Each time, exhale all the impurities from you mouth while making the ‘ha’ sound.

Step 1.With your mouth closed, press your left fourth finger on your left nostril, and use your right nostril to inhale. When you inhale, turn your head and torso towards your left.

 Visualize the light or universal energy enters your body through your right nostril.

Step 2.After filling your body with white light, press your right fourth finger on top of your right nostril, Hold your breath and turn to face forward.

While holding your breath, visualize white light flowing from your right channel down to the sea bottom chakra (hui yin region-perineum), and into your left channel. Then flow up your left channel to the left nostril. All the blockages, diseases, aches and pains, and poisons in your body are transformed into the negative qi.

Step 3.Release your left nostril and exhale the negative qi. Repeat steps 1 to 3, three times.

Step 4.Next repeat 1 to 3, on the opposite side. That is, inhale with your left nostril and exhale with your right nostril, etc. also, repeat three times.

Step 5.Relax your hands on your knees. Inhale with both nostrils. White light from your left and right channels meets together at hui yin. Hold your breath and visualize white light flowing up the middle channel to the crown chakra (bai hui), then back down to the hui yin. Then Divide into two, up your left and right channels. Exhale all the negative qi out of the nostrils. Repeat three times.

There are a total of 9 inhalation and exhalations from step 1-5. Practice 3 sets, a total of 27 inhalations and exhalations. The first 9 times, breathe very lightly and finely. The second 9 times, start making sounds with your breathing. The last 9 times, make even louder sounds with your breathing and rotate your body further as you turn, when doing steps 1 to 4.

Today many doctors and scientists found that stress can cause so many disease even cancer when it has not been resolved and continues,

So change the way of your breathing and deal with your stressful times and keep you healthy and prevent any illnesses.

For the consultation, Call us : 310-481-2266, we will help you release your stress and feel balanced at tao of medicine 

Enjoy your breathing and Release your physical and mental tension!