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But there is one more level of sensation that we are given as our birthright. This is the all-encompassing sensation of openness that lies at the heart of being. As our sensation begins to open up, as we sense a broader frequency of vibration in our experience of ourselves (a vibration that includes instead of excluding), we come into touch with the sensation of the energy of life itself—before it is conditioned by the rigid mental, emotional, and physical forms of the society in which we live, and, even more importantly, by our own self-image. As we learn more and more about how to allow this direct sensation of life into our experience of ourselves, we feel a growing spaciousness, a sense of wonder in which the restrictions of our self-image can begin to dissolve. It is the organic experience of this essential spaciousness that embraces the various polarities and contradictions of our lives, the various manifestations of yin and yang, and allows them to exist side by side in our being without reaction. This inner, organic embrace, this sensory acceptance of everything that we are, frees not only our body but also our mind and feelings, bringing us a new sense of vitality and wholeness.

THE THREE BREATHING SPACES

To experience this inner, organic embrace, however, requires that we begin to open up the various chambers of our being, allowing them to return to their original “large and roomy” condition. The most direct way to begin this process is to learn how to experience the essential spaciousness of our breath and to guide this spaciousness consciously into ourselves—into what Ilse Middendorf calls our “three breathing spaces.” These spaces are the lower breathing space, from the navel downward; the middle space from the navel to the diaphragm; and the upper space from the diaphragm up through the head (Figure 28). By learning how to breathe into and experience these spaces, we begin to open to ourselves in new ways. We learn how to relax all unnecessary tension and to find dynamic relaxation, the ideal balance between tension and relaxation, in our own tissues—in the various boundaries of these spaces. And this work, in itself, can bring about many important changes both in our perception of ourselves and in our health.

Figure 28

The idea of the three breathing spaces coincides from an anatomical standpoint almost exactly with the concept of the “triple burner,” or “triple warmer,” in Chinese medicine. The triple burner is one of the basic systems of the body, a system with a name and a function but no specific form. It consists of an upper, middle, and lower energetic space, each of which contains within it various organs. From the standpoint of Chinese medicine, the triple burner integrates, harmonizes, and regulates the metabolic and physiologic processes of the primary organ networks. It is associated with the overall movement of chi and is also responsible for communication among the various organs of the body. It is my experience that consciously bringing the breath into each breathing space, into each burner, and sensing the spacious movement of the breath up and down through the spaces and the organs within these spaces, has a powerful balancing effect on my physical and psychological energies. If I work with this practice before I go to bed at night, it calms me and helps me sleep better; if I work with it during the day, it brings me a sense of greater relaxed vitality.

This work with the breathing spaces of the body is extremely powerful. In writing about the results of her approach to the breath through working with the various breathing spaces of the body, for example, Middendorf points out that “Through practicing and working on the breath we constantly create and experience new breathing spaces. This enables the body to free itself from its dullness and lack of liveliness, so that it feels easy and light through the continuing breathing movement and filled with new power, it