BREATH-WORK

The most important aspect of every type of training is breathing. Breathing makes a huge difference when working out. Through breathing, you regulate the amount of energy flow entering your body / energy system. By breathing correctly, you will get maximum benefits from any type of workout. There are different types of breathing and through certain techniques you can achieve extraordinary experiences such as different states of consciousness (such as meditation and out-of-body experiences).

In our normal society today, we barely think about breathing, and how important breathing is to our health and development. We take the breath as something involuntary, and we breathe by default without awareness. As normal (conventional) human beings, we breathe very little and only athletes and those who devote themselves to spiritual practices benefit greatly from breathing practices. Breathing is our energy engine of life force; we regulate our amount of energy through breathing. Also, breathing has a really calming effect and is able to release tension from the body. Learning how to breathe is essential to your health and growth.

Here I will introduce the breathing techniques I have used so far, and as always, I recommend that you research more about breath-work.

1) Deep continuous breathing

I learned this breathing technique in Spain while doing Re-Birth therapy. Continuous Deep Breathing is different from Re-Birth therapy because the breathing is more intense and there is no foetal position after the breathing training. It consists of weekly 45-minute sessions of continuous deep breathing. The deeper and more intense the breathing, the greater the growth effect of the lungs. It has a very strong effect. Breathing deeply, I mean really deep, until you feel your lungs expand and your diaphragm works hard, expanding your lungs and increasing your diaphragm as much as possible. In this way, you increase your breathing capacity. Think of what effect this has on your energy levels. This way, you are able to absorb more oxygen / energy in one breath. This makes way for a more energetic life. The growth of the lungs and diaphragm is very important to be really energetic, fast, light and strong.

As you practice continuous deep breathing, you activate your parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. This is the part of the nervous system that deals with repair and healing. In this way, you will heal different parts of the body, some more than others. You will feel low on energy, hot, heavy with certain types of pain in different areas. These are all symptoms of the body’s healing and cleansing process. After a while of doing the breathing, if it is done properly, you will have these healing symptoms. The secret is to keep breathing until all 45 minutes have passed. Those 45 minutes might seem like hours at first, but if you want to get stronger and stronger, you definitely need to grow your lungs. There is no limit here, you can always grow your lungs. You need recovery periods after a certain increase, but you can always increase more and more in lung capacity. Try a period of 10 sessions at first, rest for a month or 2 and see how the new lungs work, then you can start another 10 sessions and so on.

I used to feel, while doing the continuous deep breathing practice, a lot of heaviness in my hands and feet. I mean huge weight, like my hands and feet weighed 100 kilograms. I could hardly move them at all. They had a numb feeling. It was a very strange sensation, but I followed the suggestion of the therapist who kept telling me: “You are the breath and only the breath! Keep breathing!”. In the beginning, the therapist is very helpful, encouraging you not to stop breathing. You may forget to breathe continuously as you begin to feel the healing effects in your body. After a while, your subconscious mind learns the behaviour and it will be easier for you to continue breathing continuously.

I recommend that you have a partner to guide you in the beginning of this practice. He would be able to give you adequate support when the intense symptoms of physical healing come. In the beginning, because you lack experience in the practice, it may be difficult to know how to lessen the overly intense physical symptoms and/or continue with continuous deep breathing. After a while of doing one session every week, and after you get used to this practice, you will be ready to do sessions on your own.

While doing a 10-week lung growth period, it is recommended that every morning after waking up and every night before going to bed, you do 5-10 minutes of continuous deep breathing. In this way, you will imprint this behaviour more and more in the subconscious mind, and you will feel some small healing effects from the short breathing training.

Lung and diaphragm growth is one of the most beneficial information you can get from this site. Every piece of information is beneficial, but I want to point it out now. New lungs will give you a new and improved life.

The protocol for this type of breathing session is very easy: you start breathing deeply and continuously and do not stop for 45 minutes. If you feel the healing sensations in your body very intensely, reduce the intensity and speed of your breathing until you feel better, but do not stop. You can start with nose breathing and change to mouth breathing and after a while you can revert to the nose again. You can take in more air through your mouth, making your lungs and diaphragm work even harder. But it is very important not to overdo it. Keep at a steady pace. You will see that 45 minutes is a long time to breathe this way. The sensations of such training are very strong.

A good time to do this breathing exercise is before bed, this way you will fall asleep easily and receive more healing benefits during the night.

2) Continuous rhythmic breathing

This breathing technique is very useful to pump up the body / energy system with a lot of energy and also to create a huge cleansing energy effect. This breathing consists of a rhythmic and rapid breathing. They are rapid inhalations and exhalations that last the same amount of time. This can be 3 second intervals, or 2 seconds, or just 1 second. You will find your rhythm. The idea is to keep breathing at a fast pace. This will pump in much more oxygen and release much more CO2 than is done with normal breathing. This is a quick way to clear your internal energy house.

As always, find your own pace at first, and over time, with practice, you’ll be able to pick up the pace. I used to kind of cheat while doing this breathing by listening to electronic music while breathing. The fast beat of the music facilitated my rapid and continuous breathing for a long time. I could keep breathing for more than an hour in some cases. Without the help of music, I wouldn’t be able to practice for so long.

First start with a 10-minute session for a week, then gradually increase the session. You can extend the next one by 5 or 10 minutes, depending on how you feel about this breathing exercise. It is recommended that you do this every day or most days. The best time would be in the morning, but feel free to do it whenever you feel like it.

3) Breath of fire

This breath stimulates a lot of energy in the Internal Energy System, especially in the first 2 chakras (energy centres of the body/energy system) located in the coccyx area and in the area below the navel. Breath of fire focuses on a powerful exhalation, aided by the contraction and withdrawal of the abdomen as you do so. This way, your exhalation will be stronger than your inhalation. Exhalation is active and forced and inspiration is passive and relaxed.

I learned fire breathing from Kundalini Yoga training. Kundalini Yoga uses movement and breath to stimulate the activation and movement of Kundalini energy in the body. Kundalini energy starts from the first energy centre (the root chakra) and goes up through the spine, through all the other energy centres, until it reaches the last energy centre of this earthly dimension (the seventh), the crown chakra. When you do this, you are bathed in high spiritual energy.

I recommend you try a Kundalini Yoga training. Fire breathing can be done in sets of 30 pumps, or 40 pumps, or 50 pumps, or even more (a pump is a powerful exhalation). It depends on how long you can stand it. You also need to see how many series you can handle (3 series, or 4 series, or 5 series). At first, you’ll always start with a shorter practice to see how you get on, and with time and practice, you’ll be able to practice longer. As with any workout, you need to feel well-worked (tired) after the workout is over. And each workout must surpass the previous one. Either do more repetitions, more sets, or increase the intensity of the repetitions. You always have to push a little more with each workout. In this way, the organism will always grow.

4) Alternative nostril breathing

Now, we will talk about Nadi Shuddhi Pranayama or alternate breathing. Nadi means meridian or energy channel. Through this type of breathwork, we are clearing the two main meridians around the spine. One channel is male (Pingala) and the other is female (Ida). Through this breath, we alternate the male energy flow with the female energy flow.

For this practice we will use a certain hand grip on the nose. We will use the thumb and ring finger to block the right and left nostril respectively. We can also use both fingers to block both nostrils when using breath retention as well.

The hand posture is called Vishnu Mudra. Bend the index finger and middle finger and hold the index finger, ring finger and little finger.

To perform this practice, we will sit in a comfortable position, where we keep our back straight. We can sit on a chair, or we can sit cross-legged. It doesn’t matter where we sit, all that matters is that the spine is straight and vertical, the shoulders are open and pulled back, and the chest is open.

The practice always begins by blocking the right nostril and inhaling through the left nostril. Also, the practice ends by blocking the right nostril and exhaling through the left nostril.

A repetition of these breaths consists of:

1. The right nostril is blocked

2. Inhale through the left nostril

3. The left nostril is blocked

4. Exhale through the right nostril

5. Inhale through the right nostril

6. The right nostril is blocked

7. Exhale through the left nostril

Then, it continues with other repetitions starting with inhalation through the left nostril and ending with exhalation through the left nostril.

This practice of Nadi Shuddi has two forms. The first is made up only of inhalation and exhalation. The second is made up of inhalation, exhalation and retention between the two. In the first, we just inhale and exhale without any pause in between. In the second, after inhaling we have a pause, a breath retention and then we exhale. In some retention practices, retention is practiced only after inhalation, and in other practices retention can be used both after inhalation and exhalation. After exhalation, it is more difficult to use retention than after inhalation.

We can use the following runtimes. First, we can start with times of 4. We inhale for 4 and exhale for 4. We inhale 1-2-3-4 and exhale 1-2-3-4. Then we can use time 6 or 8.

For the practices that also involve retention, we can still start with 4. 4 on inhalation, then 4 on retention and then 4 on exhalation and then, we inhale for 4 and so on. Over time, we can increase these times, then we can end up doubling the retention time compared to the inspiration time. We can try several times. The longer the execution time, the more we will benefit from this practice. The real magic happens on retention. Retention is the most important thing in this practice. First, we start the practice without retention to get used to it and then, we will also move to retention to really enjoy this cleansing practice.

Its main purpose is to purify the energy channels that circulate through our body. In this way, the mind and body are cleared.

5) The Wim Hoff method

A very special breathing exercise will be presented here. This breathing exercise is intended to increase resistance to extreme cold and extreme heat. The creator of this breathing technique, as well as those who learned it, are able to stay in ice-cold water. His motto is: “The cold is your warm friend.” Achieving such an ability, to withstand extreme temperatures, is a super skill.

I will present here the breathing technique as presented by the Iceman, Wim Hoff.

The first part is a breathing exercise that can be likened to controlled hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is something that happens involuntarily. But, imagine just the breathing part, without any of the stress triggers that normally cause this breathing pattern. The result will be rapid breathing that makes you stronger, invigorates and fills you with oxygen.

Always do the breathing exercises in a safe environment (e.g., sitting on a sofa / floor) and unforced. Do not practice it before or while swimming, driving, or while showering or in any other environment/place where it could be dangerous to pass out. The breathing exercise has a profound effect and must be practiced in the way it is explained.

1) Be comfortable.

Sit in a meditation posture, whichever is most comfortable for you. Make sure you can expand your lungs freely without feeling any constriction. It is recommended to do this practice immediately after waking up, since the stomach is still empty, or to do it before a meal.

2) 30 Breaths of Power

Imagine you are blowing up a balloon. Inhale through the nose or mouth and exhale through the mouth in short, powerful bursts. Keep a steady rhythm and always use your diaphragm to breathe. Close your eyes and do a this is about 30 times. Symptoms could be dizziness, tingling and numbness.

3) Retention after expiration

After the 30 quick successions of breathing cycles, take another deep breath and fill your lungs to capacity without forcing. Then let all the air out and hold it out as long as you can without forcing. Hold your breath until the reflex to inhale comes.

4) Retention after inspiration

Inhale to maximum capacity. Feel your chest expand. When you are at full capacity, hold your breath for at least 10 seconds. This will be the first round and the next round begins.

A minimum of three rounds of 30 repetitions are performed. Over time, the number of rounds and the number of repetitions can also be increased.

5) After finishing the breathing exercise, take time to enjoy the feeling after the practice. This feeling will be more like a meditation.

When you start doing these exercises, I recommend that you also take time for recovery.

This breathing practice helps you a lot before any physical activity, be it work, sports or parties.