Normal and Reversed Breathing

Normal Breathing:

Normal Breathing is very different from the automatic breathing cycle that keeps you alive when you are not thinking about breathing. The reason is simple: no one really breathes correctly without thinking about it. Most people take in only 11 ml of oxygen per minute, far below the minimum oxygen your body needs to be healthy. A Normal Breath is a healthy breath.

An inhalation should fill your lungs almost completely without straining your abdomen or diaphragm. The breath should naturally fill your abdomen, without raising your upper torso. A deep breath should not even make your upper ribs move. Place your hand over your heart, where your ribs connect to your sternum, between your solar plexus and your throat. Take a deep breath and feel to see if your ribs are moving. If they do, you are filling your upper lungs too much, and not enough air is getting to the bottom of your lungs. Although it is impossible to keep your rib cage totally immobile (which is not the objective) it should move as little as possible without requiring too much effort.

When you exhale, let your abdomen rest until the air doesn’t come out naturally anymore, and then pull your abdomen in slightly without force. It won’t completely empty your lungs. If your ribs are moving inward or downward too much, it means you had to lift them upward when you inhaled, or that you filled the upper part of your lungs too much.

Breath in Abdomen out upper chest normal.	Breath out Abdomen normal Upper chest normal

When you breathe normally, it is your abdomen that pushes out slightly and pulls in slightly, (as you inhale and exhale). The breathing cycle should not require excessive force, but it should fill your lungs up to 80% of your maximum capacity. To fill your lungs to 100% of their capacity requires effort, and it is not natural. Breathing out with force and pulling in your abdomen slightly at the end of the breath empties your lungs to 10% or 20% of their capacity. Just as it is not healthy to fill your lungs to 100%, it is not healthy to empty them completely; to empty your lungs totally requires the application of more force than to bring them to a natural state.

To learn this for yourself, try filling your lungs completely (without hurting yourself), while keeping your rib cage as immobile as possible. Then, hold the air in for 10 seconds and breathe out completely, holding your breath out for 10 seconds. Let all your muscles relax and allow your body to breathe without influencing it, while you think about the difference between these two ways of breathing. Now, take in a Normal Breath, filling your lungs down to your abdomen with only a slight effort. Hold the air in for 3 seconds, and then let it out without any other effort than a slight pulling inward of your abdomen at the end of exhalation.

This is what is meant by a “Normal Breath”. Normal Breathing will be used in all of the techniques that focus on the elevation of self, such as meditation, mental and Spiritual training. The Reversed Breath is used in physical development, to open the channels of energy in your body and to enhance your ability to manifest your Qi on the physical plane.

Reversed breathing

To clearly understand the principles of Reversed Breathing, you must first practice accurate Normal Breathing. It is important to keep your rib cage almost motionless while doing the Reversed Breathing. You should also understand the principles of Jin, Qi and Shen in order for this practice to be effective.

The Reversed Breathing cycle is used to concentrate or compress your Qi in a way that will make it denser, compressing it, so it can become available on the physical plane. It is used to produce Jin from your Qi. When you compact the Qi, you will feel heat. This is the Jin.

To clarify this for you, forget about the Normal Breathing method for a moment and let yourself breathe instinctively. Imagine yourself in a situation where you are very alert, perhaps needing to defend yourself, thus requiring that you are ready for immediate action. While closing your fists, take in a quick, deep breath without thinking. Most people will notice that the abdomen automatically pulls in when you are breathing in, and it pushes out slightly when you exhale. Experiment a bit with this breathing.

When in Danger, the body automatically does a Reversed Breath, getting ready to pour energy into physical action. The quick breath mentioned above was only meant as an example. For the Reversed Breath method, the breath should be drawn in as smoothly as the Normal Breath unless stated otherwise.

Breath in Abdomen pulled in upper chest normal.	Breath out Abdomen let out Upper chest normal

When we are working with methods that focus on manifesting physical phenomena, we will be doing Reversed Breathing. The upper rib cage still doesn’t move, and you should still breathe slowly and comfortably. As you breathe in, contract your abdomen, pulling it in slightly. As you breathe out, release your abdominal muscles completely, pushing out slightly at the end of the exhalation, without force.