The Tao of Natural Breathing_ For Health, Well-Being, and Inner Growth - Dennis Lewis [28]
Figure 13
PRACTICE
As we saw in Chapter 2, one of the keys to health and healing is the work with self-sensing—the development of inner attention and awareness. Without this work with our inner attention and the eventual ability to control it, the breathing practices described in this book will have little impact. In discussing the importance of attention, an acknowledged master of chi kung and Chinese medicine writes: “By attention we mean both the experience of consciousness and the activity of the brain that lies behind it. Regulating attention allows the practitioner to bring his/her Qi into a comfortable condition. Finding this state of comfortableness and ease is the key to successfully apply Qi Gong to eliminate disease, strengthen the body, prolong life, and promote intelligence.” 33 What is crucial in these breathing practices is thus to undertake them with full clarity, effortlessly and comfortably, that is, without strain, without any effort to achieve some result that you think you should have. Also give yourself plenty of resting time after each practice, so that you can sense its influence on you.
Opening your belly
Figure 14
1
Sit or stand quietly. Observe how you breathe for several minutes, then put your hands over your navel. As you inhale, sense that you’re breathing directly from your nose through a long narrow tube into a balloon behind your navel. As the balloon expands, so does your abdominal area. As you breathe out, the balloon contracts and you have the sensation that the air is squeezed slowly back up through the tube and out through your nose (Figure 14). Obviously, the air that you inhale does not go into the abdomen; it goes into the lungs. But the “sen-sation” of a movement going from the nose into the abdomen relaxes your abdominal muscles and tissues and helps the diaphragm move lower into the abdomen and massage your inner organs. Be sure that your shoulders and chest remain relaxed during this exercise. Do not use effort. Simply visualize and sense the movement of the balloon in your belly. Simultaneously sense the downward and upward movement of the diaphragm as you inhale and exhale.
Sensing your diaphragm
Figure 15
2
To get an even clearer sense of the movement of your diaphragm, lie on your back with your knees bent, your feet slightly apart and flat on the floor, and your arms at your side (Figure 15). As you inhale into your belly, let the balloon expand as much as possible. At the end of the inhalation, hold your breath, making sure that no air can escape through your nose or mouth. Then, without breathing, gradually flatten your belly and gently shift the balloon of air up into your chest. Simultaneously, sense your diaphragm moving upward. Now flatten your chest and shift the balloon back down into your belly. See if you can feel your diaphragm moving downward at the same time. Move the balloon back and forth several times in a pumplike motion. Rest for a couple of minutes and observe any changes in your breathing. Try the exercise two or three more times.
Opening your rib cage
3
Continuing to lie on your back, put your hands on the sides of your rib cage over your lower ribs and feel the expansion of the balloon into both sides of the rib cage as you inhale. As you exhale, the ribs return to their normal position. By breathing in this way, you are helping the diaphragm to move even deeper into your abdomen, since the bottom of the diaphragm is attached to the lower ribs. To get an even better sense of the movement of your rib cage, lie on your right side with your head resting on your right arm and your left palm resting gently on the lower left side of your rib cage (Figure 16). As you breathe, feel that you are breathing directly into and out of the left side of your rib cage. Work in this way for 15 or 20 breaths, and then lie again on your back with your feet flat on the