Normal and reversed breathing

Normal breathing

A normal breath is very different than the automatic breathing cycle that keep you alive when you are not thinking about breathing. The reason is simple; no one really breath correctly when they are not thinking about it. Some people take in only 11 ml of oxygen per minute, way far from the minimum oxygen your body needs to be healthy. A normal breath is a healthy breath.

The inhalation should fill your lungs almost completely without straining your abdomen or diaphragm. The breath should naturally fill your abdomen, without raising your upper torso. A deep breath should not even make your higher ribs move. Place your hand over your hearth, where your ribs connect to the sternum, between your solar plexus and your throat. Take a deep breath and feel if your ribs are moving. If they do, you are filling your upper lungs too much and not enough air is getting to the bottom of your lungs. Although it is impossible to keep your rib cage immobile (and that is not the goal), it should move as little as possible without requiring effort.

When you exhale, let your abdomen rest until the air doesn’t come out naturally anymore, and pull your abdomen in lightly without force. It won’t completely empty your lungs. If your ribs are moving inward or downward too much, it means you lifted them upward while you inhaled, or that you filled the upper part of your lungs too much.

Breath in Abdomen out upper chest normal.	Breath out Abdomen normal Upper chest normal

When you breath normally, it is your abdomen that pushes out slightly and pulls in slightly, as you inhale and exhale. The breathing cycle should not require excessive force, but it should fill your lungs up to 80% of your maximum capacity. To fill your lungs to 100% of it’s capacity require effort, and it is not natural. When you breath out with force, pulling in your abdomen lightly at the end of the breath, empties your lungs to 20% or 10% of it’s capacity. The same for emptying your lungs totally, force is applied more than the natural state.

To experiment, your can try filling your lungs completely (without hurting yourself) and keep your rib cage as immobile as possible, then keep the air in for 10 seconds and breath out completely, keeping your breath out for 10 seconds. Let all your muscles go and let your body breath without influencing it and look at the difference. Now, do a normal breath, filling your lungs down to your abdomen with at least a little effort, but lightly. Keep the air in 3 seconds and let it out without any effort, but a light pulling inward of your abdomen at the end of exhalation.

This is what we mean by “normal breath”. It will be used in practices that focus on the elevation of self, meditation, mental and spiritual training, while the reversed breath is used in physical development, opening the channels of energy in your body, enhancing your ability to manifest your energy on the physical plane.

Reversed breathing

To clearly understand the principle of reversed breathing, you must first practice accurate normal breathing. This is important to keep your rib cage almost motionless while doing the reversed breathing. You should also remember that energy exist at many levels of vibration.

The reversed breathing cycle is used to concentrate energy, in a way that will make it more dense, compacting it so it can become available on the physical plane. It is used to produce denser energy forms.

As an example, forget about the normal breathing method and let the instinctive breath come along. Imagine yourself in a situation of alert, of defending yourself, of being ready for action, and while closing your fists, take in a quick deep breath without thinking. Most of you will notice that the abdomen pulled in while you where breathing in, and in pushes out lightly when you exhale. Experiment a bit.

When in danger, the body automatically does a reversed breath, getting ready to put energy in a physical action. The quick part was only for the example. The reversed breath method goes as smoothly as the normal breath unless stated otherwise.

Breath in Abdomen pulled in upper chest normal.	Breath out Abdomen let out Upper chest normal

When we are working with methods that focus on manifesting physical phenomena, we will be doing reversed breathing. The upper rib cage still doesn’t move, and you should breath slowly and comfortably. As the you breath in, contract your abdomen pulling it in lightly. As you breath, let go of your abdominal muscles completely, pushing out lightly at the end of the exhalation, without force.