The flow of energy through your body and via your breath is part of traditional Chinese and Indian meditative, healing and exercise practices. This energy, called "ki," is said to flow through and around you. Ki breathing exercises can change the way that energy flows through your body. You can learn simple ki breathing from stress relief seminars and health club yoga sessions, but there are more difficult and advanced ki breathing options.
Three-Part Breathing
This advanced exercise helps you move from being aware of your breathing to controlling how your breath enters and leaves your body. Begin by visualizing your torso in thirds: the bottom around your belly, middle around your solar plexus and lower lungs, and the top from just below your nipples to your collar. Breathe first by filling from bottom to middle to top, then from top to middle to bottom. The most advanced version of this practice involves breathing out of sequence, such as top-bottom-middle, or middle-bottom-top.
Focused Breathing
Focused breathing can improve your awareness of specific body parts, and potentially of the flow of energy to or from an area of your body. Because you can't actually breathe into, for example, your elbow, it's more of a visualization exercise that involves your breath. However, most advanced breathing exercises are more visualization than physical process. To conduct focused breathing, focus on one part of your body as you breathe in. Visualize the air and energy from your inhalation filling that body part. As this happens, you may find that you notice pain or strength in that area that you hadn't before realized. For some, this exercise is easier if you visualize the incoming breath as a wash of color that floods the body part on which you are focusing.
Cleansing Breath
Essentially the opposite of focused breathing, this exercise can help relieve stress and is said to improve your immunity and aid with healing. Begin a cleansing breath exercise by focusing on an area that hurts, or a negative emotion. Visualize that pain or emotion as a specific color. Some people get better results if they choose a negative color like angry red or a dirty green. Inhale deeply and calmly. When you exhale, visualize that angry color flowing through and out of your body. With each exhalation, you'll expel more and more of the negative color until it has left your body completely.
Warning
Breathing for stress relief is an established part of scientifically supported western medicine. However, breathing for healing and the concept of ki are deeply in the territory of "alternative medicine." Don't rely solely on breathing exercises for healing any illness or industry. When beginning advanced breathing practice, it's a good idea to sit down. Breathing practice can leave you lightheaded, and risk a fall if you're standing up.
References
- "Yoga For a New Age"; Bob Smith; 1986
- "Tai Chi for Busy People"; Dr. Keith Jeffrey; 2003
- MayoClinic.com: Stress Management
