The Tao of Natural Breathing_ For Health, Well-Being, and Inner Growth - Dennis Lewis [39]
PRACTICE
To prepare for this practice, sit or stand quietly with your eyes open and experience the coming and going of your breath. Get in touch with the three tan tiens—just below the navel, in the solar plexus, and between the eyebrows. Sense the different qualities of vibration in these areas. As you breathe, sense your outer and inner breath—the various upward and downward movements of both tissue and energy. Clearly note any areas that seem to be tense or closed to your breath. Spend at least 10 minutes on this stage of the practice.
1 Opening your breathing spaces
During exhalation, use two or three fingers to press gently into your lower abdomen, between your pubic bone and your navel. During inhalation, gradually release the pressure. Sense how your abdomen responds to this pressure. Take several breaths this way. Now put your hands over your navel, and work in the same way—pressing as you exhale, and gradually releasing the pressure as you inhale. Notice how your lower breathing space begins to open.
Next, put your hands over your lower ribs on both sides of your trunk. As you exhale, gently press your ribs inward with your hands. As you inhale, gradually release the pressure from your hands and sense your ribs expanding outward. It is helpful to realize that the lower ribs, also called the “floating ribs,” can expand quite freely since they are not attached to your sternum. In fact, the expansion of the floating ribs helps create more space for the lungs to expand at their widest point.
Now, apply light pressure to your solar plexus as you exhale. Again, watch for several minutes as your upper abdomen begins to relax and open. Next, as you exhale, press lightly on the bottom of your sternum. Taking several breaths in each position, gradually work your way up toward the top of the sternum. If you take your time and work gently, you will find your various breathing spaces beginning to become more elastic and spacious. Now try this same approach with any areas of your abdomen, rib cage (both on and between your ribs), shoulders, and so on that seem overly tight or constricted. Take your time. It is actually better to do this work for 15 or 20 minutes each day over a period of a week or so than to try to do it all in one session.
2 A simple technique for opening the three breathing spaces
There is another, simple technique that you can experiment with to help open the three breathing spaces. This technique, which I learned several years ago from Ilse Middendorf, involves pressing the appropriate finger pads of one hand against those of the other. To help open the lower space, press the pads of the little fingers and the pads of the ring fingers together firmly but without force. For the middle space, press the pads of the middle fingers together. For the upper space, press the pads of the thumbs and index fingers together. To help open all the spaces simultaneously, press the pads of all five fingers together (Figure 29). When you first begin this practice do not take more than take eight breaths while pressing your finger pads together.
Figure 29
3 Movement of spaciousness
Once you feel more of the whole of yourself involved in breathing, put most of your attention on the movement of air through your nose during inhalation. Take several long, slow breaths. Feel the empty, expansive, spacious quality of the air as it moves down through your trachea and into your lungs. But don’t stop there. As you continue your inhalation, sense this spaciousness moving downward through all the tissues and organs of your abdomen and filling your entire lower breathing space. Allow this feeling