Can anyone explain 4/4 Energizing Breath?

[Guest guest]

Hello!

 

I'm new in this discussion list. My yoga background is: hatha for 30

years, but sporadically. And learned some kundalini 10 years ago,

and do some from the book Kundalini Yoga book by Gurucharan, again

very sporadically. And have done many kinds of meditation - again

sometimes on, sometimes off. And I've done other kinds of

consicousness study and expansion techniques.

 

Now I'm trying to renew myself and am starting through the 25 lessons

from www.yogatech.com by Gururattan Kau Khalsa. They are wonderful!

I'm grateful for them!

 

In lesson 1, she suggests an exercise called 4/4 Energizing Breath at

kysets/44breath.html.

 

Usually when I have trouble with an exercise, it's because the

explanation seems contradictory.

 

Can anyone explain this exercise better? Here is an excerpt of what

she writes:

 

"Inhale, breaking the breath into 4 equal parts of sniffs, filling

the lungs completely on the 4th.

 

As you exhale, release the breath equally in 4 parts, emptying the

lungs on the 4th.

 

On each part of both the inhale and exhale, pull the navel point

toward the spine. (The stronger you pump the navel the more energy

you will generate.) One full breath cycle (in and out) takes about 7-

8 seconds." (One is to do this for a minute, along with some other

instructions.)

 

Here is my confusion: I'm used to doing abdominal breathing. One

way I learned to do this is to fill my abdomen, then my lower lungs,

then my upper lungs. And to exhale in reverse, first emptying the

upper lungs, then the middle lungs, then the lower lungs, then my

abdomen. So, in this exercise, if she wants me to inhale in 4 equal

sniffs, I fill my abdomen fuller and fuller with each sniff and each

subsequent sniff, I might concentrate on a different part of my

lungs, rising higher with each sniff, but always expanding my lungs

from diaphragm to shoulders with each sniff.

 

How, in heaven's name, can I simultaneously pull my navel towards my

spine at the same time?

 

Does she intend me to pull in my abdomen as I inhale, filling only my

middle and upper lungs? And by the word "pump," does she mean just

that I am pulling in strongly? Not that I am pulling in and then

relaxing like in the pump in Breath of Fire?

 

To be more specific, on the first sniff, I would fill my lungs 1/4

full and pull in my navel toward my spine and hold it, pulling in my

abdomen, opposite to how one does abdominal breathing? Then I would

keep my abdomen in that position and inhale again, filling my lungs

1/2 full, again pulling in more on my abdomen and letting only my

chest expand, but not my abdomen? Holding my abdomen again in this

position, I sniff again, pull the abdomen in more?

 

then on the exhale, I again keep the abdomen pulled in as I exhale

1/4 of the filled lung each time. When I am finished with the

exhale, though, my abdomen is still pulled in and would I then just

begin over with the inhale, filling my chest only? Would there be no

time at all that my abdomen would relax?

 

If this is what she intends, I guess it is just hard for me, as it is

such a reverse of how I've practicing abdominal breathing for so long!

 

Can anyone shed light on this for me?

 

Thank you!

 

Susan