The Tao of Natural Breathing_ For Health, Well-Being, and Inner Growth - Dennis Lewis [32]
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THE WHOLE-BODY BREATH
... when we are able to breathe through our whole body, sensing our verticality from head to foot, we are aligning ourselves with the natural flow of energy connecting heaven and earth.
More than 2,000 years ago, the great Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu said that “The True Man breathes with his heels; the mass of men breathe with their throats.”35,36 This ancient observation about breathing, which may be especially relevant today, lies at the heart of the Taoist approach to breath. For the Taoist, breathing, when it is natural, helps open us to the vast scales of heaven and earth—to the cosmic alchemy that takes place when the radiations of the sun interact with the substances of the earth to produce the energies of life. It is our breath, especially our “natural” breath, that enables us to absorb and transform these energies.
What is “natural” breathing? We began to answer this question in the first two chapters, when we reviewed the basic physiology of breathing and explored how to observe our breath in relation to our tissues and organs. We went deeper into the meaning of natural breathing in the third chapter, when we worked with the three primary energy centers of our body, especially the center in the area of the navel. In this chapter, we will expand the work we’ve begun to include the whole body in our breath. For it is only when our whole body breathes that we can gain the fullest access to our inner healing power—to the organic vitality that is our birthright.
A SIMPLE DEFINITION OF NATURAL BREATHING
One of the simplest, most practical definitions of natural breathing that I’ve found comes from the well-known psychiatrist Alexander Lowen, who studied with Wilhelm Reich. “Natural breathing—that is, the way a child or animal breathes—involves the whole body. Not every part is actively engaged, but every part is affected to a greater or lesser degree by respiratory waves that traverse the body. When we breathe in, the wave starts deep in the abdominal cavity and flows up to the head. When we breathe out, the wave moves from head to feet.”37
From the point of view of this definition, most of us have little experience of natural breathing. In my healing work using Chi Nei Tsang (internal-organs chi massage), for example, many of the people I work on have, at the beginning of my treatments, little awareness of any movement in their abdominal cavity, lower ribs, and lower back. As I observe their breathing, or put my hands into their belly or on their chest, it is clear that the respiratory wave generally begins in the middle of the chest, or even higher, and seems to move only a short distance upward into the shoulders and neck. Some of these people have had abdominal surgery of some kind, and it is clear that even many years later they are still protecting themselves from feeling the pain of the surgery. Others are clearly protecting themselves from feeling painful emotions. Still others feel insecure about their sexuality. But what they all have in common is that they are unconsciously using their breathing to try to cut themselves off from feeling their physical and psychological discomforts and contradictions.
DISTINGUISHING THE OUTER AND INNER MOVEMENTS OF BREATH
To appreciate the true power of natural breathing, it is necessary to begin to distinguish two aspects of our breathing: the outer breath (the way in which our physiology operates to bring about physical respiration) and the inner breath (the subtle breath that circulates throughout our being). Whether we are working alone or being helped by someone with more experience, the key to natural breathing is through training our inner sensitivity, our inner awareness, to sense