How to Breathe

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BREATHING TECHNIQUES FOR KUNDALINI YOGA

By Susan Boles <sboles

 

Most of us don't know how to breathe properly. We take shallow breaths as

if we are afraid of what breath does. But breath is manna to our

bodies...so we should drink heavily and deeply to energize and feed our

bodies. I was taught by breathing in to the count of four...slow counts.

Feel the breath expand your ribcage.....you are aiming to fill your whole

chest cavity with air. At the end of the fourth, when you think you can't

take any more air in, take a sip more. Hold for a count of four. Exhale

over a count of four....and when you think you have all the air out, huff

more out. You will be amazed how much you can get out after this count of

four. You may experience burning in your lungs doing this. But soon, your

breathing comes deep and sure....and the count of four expands to a count

of five...six. I was told to concentrate on the emptiness between

breathing in and breathing out....that period of stillness. Once your

lungs are used to doing this, I started breathing in from different parts

of my body. No one taught me this...it just started to happen when I

meditated. I would open up my crown chakra and breathe the energy down, on

an inbreath....feeling it flow around my heart....keeping it there....then

on the outbreath, push the breath down the rest of my body to exit out my

feet. Then I would reverse it, breathing in my feet, feel it flowing to my

heart, then on the exhale, pushing it up and out my head. Dizzying at

first....but the energy that fills me when I do that was incredible. I

found out later that I was unconsciously doing something that is taught to

get the energy flowing in the two currents that wind around our spines. We

would practice this for about five minutes.....at the beginning of each

session. It prepared us for the work in the session by calming us and

getting our minds into the proper space for work.

 

The fire breath is very different. Here, you concentrate on the outbreath,

as it is thrown out with such force, the inbreath comes after it

automatically. We were taught to put our hand on our bellies and use those

muscles to force air out of our lungs in a whoosh. Our hands were to remind

us to use those muscles to force it out. Your whole abdomen is used to

empty the lungs very quickly. You should hear your breath coming out

vocally....almost like a cough but not so loud...kinda like a HUH sound.

Here, you are not using so much breath...it is like little sips in and

whooshes out. Like my advanced terminology?? :;grins:: As the fire in

fire breath is related to the power centre or third chakra, this is where

the breath is being localized. You are using your diaphram and stomach

muscles to force the breath out. Dizzying again.....and you feel the heat

in your belly rising up into you.....making your head reel with it. It

took me awhile to get used to doing this....and my stomach muscles hated me

for a while... but it was worth everything to feel what I did when the

rising started. At first, we couldn't do it very much.....it was far too

difficult to keep up....but as the weeks went by, we had longer lessons

using it.

 

The alternate nostril breathing was taught to us after the above two.

After doing the first breathing exercise a few times, raise one of your

hands to your face, palm facing it. Put your thumb by one nostril and your

forefinger by the other. Gently put your thumb over the nostril, blocking

the passage of air through it. Breathe in the other nostril slowly, using

the first technique. Hold the inbreath for a second...concentrating on the

stillness....then exhale. Remove your thumb, and put your forefinger on

it's nostril and breathe in...concentrating on the middle...exhale.

Continue to alternate with one complete inhale/exhale per thumb/finger. Do

this for about eight to ten cycles. You should feel this breathing calming

you yet energizing the chakras.