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| Belly Breathing
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You
can learn to reduce the effects of stress and
achieve relaxation by first learning the basic
technique of diaphragmatic or ‘belly’ breathing.
This can be done sitting in a chair or lying down.
Your breathing pattern is most noticeable when
you are lying down. Place one hand on your upper
chest and the other hand on your belly near the
waistline. Breathe at your normal pace and notice
which hand rises and falls most noticeably. If
you are feeling stressed, you usually breathe
from your chest with short, shallow breaths. If
you notice that you are breathing from the chest,
now push out the hand on your belly with the breath.
Inhale through the nose and exhale through the
mouth while you notice the rise and fall of the
abdominal area with both hands on the belly. If
you are having difficulty being aware of this
area, then place a very small book on your abdomen
and notice the book rise and fall as you breathe.
This will help you achieve a greater sense of
relaxation.
You may also purchase
a professional mp3 recording of this excercise
here. |
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| Counting
Breaths |
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| First,
get in a comfortable sitting position with your
arms and legs uncrossed. Then, begin the belly breathing
as described above. As you inhale through your nose,
mentally count how many seconds, approximately,
it takes you to complete the inhale. Then, exhale
through the mouth, again counting how many seconds,
approximately, it to complete the exhale. For beginners,
breathing in and out to a count of six is a reasonable
goal, then build up to about a count of 8-10 on
the inhale and 8-10 on the exhale. |
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| A
Simple Breathing Exercise Adapted from Qigong |
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 A
similar breathing technique I am now going to discuss
is adapted from the Asian technique of Qigong. According
to the National Qigong Association, Qigong (sometimes
spelled as Chi Kung) is derived from the Chinese
words ‘Qi’ meaning ‘Energy’ plus ‘Gong’, meaning
‘work’ or ‘practice’. It is a term that describes
a Chinese exercise system that focuses on cultivating
and attracting ‘Qi’, the ‘vital force’ or ‘life-force’
energies. Pronounced "Chee Gung", Qigong is a unique
Chinese exercise system. Through individual exercises,
practitioners build up their health and prevent
illness by combining a discipline of mind, body
and the body's ‘Qi’ (see The
NQA's What is Qigong?).
Qigong draws on many elements. It includes regulating
the body through posture, regulating the mind through
quiet, relaxation and concentration of one's mental
activity, regulating the breath, self-massage and
movement of the limbs. It covers a wide range of
exercises and styles, such as "tuna" (venting and
taking in), which emphasizes the practice of breath;
"still" qigong, which stresses meditation and relaxation;
"standing stance" qigong, which emphasizes the exercise
of the body by relaxed and motionless standing posture;
"moving" and “dao-yin" qigong, which emphasizes
external movement combined with internal quiet and
practice in control of the mind; as well as various
forms of self-massage. |
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| Chinese
Qigong has been practiced with a recorded history
of over 2,000 years. But it wasn't until 1953, when
Liu Gui-zheng published a paper entitled "Practice
on Qigong Therapy" (see http://www.nqa.org/qigong.html),
that the term Qigong was adopted as the popular
name for this type of exercise system. There have
been many Qigong schools in China. Although each
school adopts unique methods, they all agree on
the basic importance of regulating the mind and
deepening the respiration. |
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| The
basic breathing technique is a simple one of bringing
the palms up slowly toward the chin while inhaling,
pause briefly, then push the palms down toward the
ground while exhaling through the mouth. |
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