Simple Chi Kung_ Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy - Mantak Chia [21]
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
Breathing can be both conscious and unconscious. Most of the time, we don’t think about how we are breathing. Therefore, our breathing patterns are determined by various internal and external energy factors, such as thoughts and emotions, tension and stress, weather and environment. In this unconscious mode of breathing, energy is not regulated and balanced by breath; instead, it takes on emotional patterns and becomes shallow with a busy and stressful lifestyle.
Chi Kung increases vitality through the lungs and respiratory system by relaxing the body, lowering the metabolic rate, and quieting the mind. High levels of stress constrict the chest and muscles in the upper body, creating the tendency to breathe rapidly. Chi Kung decreases the average resting respiratory rate by emphasizing a more efficient and deeper way to breathe using the abdomen, diaphragm, and rib cage. This method of breathing is called tan tien breathing, chi belt breathing, or simply deep abdominal breathing.
A study on deep breathing revealed that after fifteen minutes of practice, the average volume of air taken into the lungs on inhalation rose from 482 ml before practice to 740 ml afterward, while the average number of breaths per minute dropped from fifteen down to only five. This represents a huge improvement in respiratory efficiency. These benefits are due to the important role that the diaphragm plays in breath control. Chi Kung, which engages the diaphragm as a pump to regulate breath and circulation, strengthens this powerful muscle and restores its natural role in breathing, resulting in a cumulative improvement in respiratory efficiency the longer Chi Kung is practiced. For example, a recent study in China demonstrated that after only two months of daily practice, the average flex of the diaphragm, which is only about 1 inch (3 cm) in people who do not practice diaphragmatic breathing, rose to between 2½ and 3½ inches (6–9 cm)—a two- to three-fold increase.
Deep breathing, as taught in Chi Kung, is more important than ever before. Two hundred years ago, the air we breathed contained 38 percent oxygen and only 1 percent carbon dioxide. Today, due to factors such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, and industrial pollution, the level of oxygen in the air has dropped by half to only 19 percent, while the carbon dioxide level has risen to a dizzying 25 percent. Chi Kung trains practitioners to become more efficient breathers, drawing in more oxygen with less effort.
The deep breathing and the long, rhythmic extensions of the limbs and torso performed in moving Chi Kung exercises also stimulate the movement of lymph throughout the body. Since lymph helps purify the blood and intercellular fluids, Chi Kung exercises promote detoxification of the entire body, right down to the individual cells.
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Chi Kung is a fantastic way to support digestion, improving everything from weight loss to IBS, from constipation to ulcers. Chi Kung brings healing energy to all the internal organs and helps to create balance and harmony throughout the digestive tract. Anyone who has been in a Universal Tao workshop knows that belching, yawning, and moving wind are common occurrences with Chi Kung exercises and meditations like the Six Healing Sounds. People spend millions of dollars on digestive drugs to help ease indigestion or alleviate abdominal pain. This may be largely unnecessary, since doing just a little Chi Kung can clear up most of these problems in minutes. You will find that as you practice Chi Kung, your body will naturally detoxify and clear your “pathogenic” or “evil” chi.
There are many ways that Chi Kung practice improves digestion. Abdominal breathing, for one, massages the internal organs and brings more circulation to the lower abdomen. As the diaphragm descends on inhalation, it squeezes the stale blood, bile, and other stagnant fluids from the liver and other organs, and when the pressure is released