Breathe the Correct Way

Hello again, now I want to tell you about something about breathing that I should have told you in the very beginning. It’s about how to breathe. I’ll give the procedures to check whether your breathing is in the correct way or not and then to how to make it the correct way.

PROCEDURE TO CHECK WHETHER YOU ARE BREATHING CORRECTLY

Though this can explain good breathing, note
that you needn't move your chest as shown  here.

1. Observe how you breathe. You are taking the air in through your nostrils... They travel up the length of the nose... Travel down to your lungs... Good.

2. Now observe your stomach. Are they expanding? Well and good. Congratulations. You are breathing correctly. You are one in a 1000 or rarer. You needn’t proceed.

But if your stomach is not expanding, read on...

3. Observe your chest. Are they expanding or are you lifting your chest or shoulders up? Your chest is not meant to move during this wonderful process.

(If you are impatient to read the reasons and stuff, scroll to go see the procedure to correct your breathing.)

WHY CAN’T I MOVE MY CHEST?

It’s a good question. We have our ‘Thoracic Diaphragm’ in the underside of the chest to separate chest from the abdominal cavity. These skeletal-muscles perform respiration. During inhalation, they are designed to push downwards (to the abdominal cavity). This creates suction that draws air.

When air is drawn, when you breathe the wrong way, your rib cage expands. When air is drawn, when you breathe the correct way, your stomach expands. Now ask yourself. Which can expand more – stomach or rib cage? By simple logic we can say, it’s the stomach.

So when you practice the correct way, your lungs will get more space in the underside and so it can expand and grow a lot. This helps you use the unused alveolar cells in your lungs.

Did You Know...

1. A normal adult's lungs have about 6 x 10⁹ cells of which a person who is not a Yogi normally uses only one-third of it?

2.  Deep, Slow Breathing is believed to increase your lifetime?

3. Tortoises breath in a very, very slow rate? Not only their breathing, but many bodily functions are slow. And their lifetime is 120+ years. 

PROOF

Watch a baby. It breathes the correct way because they didn't make it wrong. It is the daily situations that lead to us to breathe the wrong way. For example, when someone scares you suddenly you'll have a sudden intake of air - in the wrong way. The 'hangover' of the scary incident influences us for long time that we breathe the wrong way. Another example: When we are small kids, we climb up things like windows and remember when our Mother sees us, is frightened of our safety that she makes a cry or call us. This has the same impact of someone scaring us. And such incidents train our body to breathe the wrong way.

Meditation II - Triangular Breathing Meditation

Triangular Breathing

Here we'll discuss about Triangular Breathing in meditation. This one is very simple. You'll be able to get close to 'master it' within a week. In this type, we use deep breathing in a new way - triangular way. So if you have any problems with lungs like asthma, do this when you are not currently suffering from asthma. If you have such problems, you won't be able to do this in an appreciable manner.

Triangular Breathing is the way of breathing in the ratio 1:1:1. Usually I name this breathing method 'Equilateral Triangular Breathing'. Steps 3-5 gives a brief description on how to do this. This one doesn't need procedure but for the sake of it...

Did You Know...

1. Adults usually use only one-third (200 million out of 600 million, approx.) of the alveolar cells in the lungs?

PROCEDURE

1. Sit cross-legged comfortably and keep your back straight. In Meditation I, you were not asked to consciously keep your spine straight because there we shouldn't do things consciously. But here, you should use a little extra effort. Clasp you fingers and close your eyes if you want to.

2. Take 1 or 2 deep breaths to cool you off.

3. Now inhale deeply and fill your lungs at a uniform rate through a course of some 5 or 7 or 12 or more seconds.

4. Keep the air in your lungs for about the same time - 5 or 7 or 12 or more seconds.

5. Exhale completely and uniformly through a course of the same time.

6. If you wish to and have the energy, repeat steps 3 - 5 six or twelve times or a 'multiple of six' times. I don't know why this is so. This is what I learnt - do it in multiples of six.

DON'T s
1. Don't pressure yourself to keep the air in a longer time. Time will build-up gradually.
2. Don't pressure yourself to repeat it more number of times.

Did You Know...

2. Deep, Slow Breathing is believed to increase your lifetime?
3. Tortoises breath in a very, very slow rate? Not only their breathing, but many bodily functions are slow. And their lifetime is 120+ years.

BENEFITS
1. Increase lung capacity and power.
2. This one can aid cure your asthma.
3. Increase stamina and energy, get more cosmic energy (we'll deal about this later), improve concentration, and eliminate many diseases. 
4. Slower and deeper breathing can slow down and improve most of your bodily processes like heart beat, digestion, etc. That's why deep breathing itself can cure many diseases which seem to have no connection with lungs.

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Meditation I - Nirmal Stiti Meditation

So you have committed to go through your way to good health. Here we wish to discuss about the first and foremost type of meditation. There is no hard and fast rule that you should perform this type of meditation before everything else... This way, it’s just easier and perhaps better. Here goes the procedure...

PROCEDURE

Clasped Fingers 

1.      Getting Ready: Though not compulsory, wash your face with clean water. Choose a clean place without much distraction with proper ventilation. Start off by sitting cross legged. This is one of the best positions because when you sit so and clasp your finger, the energy circuit, which always exists within you, becomes stable. So you don’t have to worry about muscles to keep your posture better. This can help prevent yourself from dozing off if otherwise you use a good position of Savasana. For this type of meditation, I bet you’ll do the best when 

      you sit cross legged.

2.      Relax: Take few deep breaths, about 5-10; but don’t take exhausting very deep breath. This is just for you to relax. So take some air, pass it out, and relax. Control your thoughts by just not controlling anything; just don’t let anything into you... Relax totally.

3.      Once you get your body relaxed, you become conscious about the Mind and the Intellect. (You know this – when you travel by train and you don’t have anything to read on, you’ll soon dip yourself in thoughts). 

      Better to close your eyes in the first place, for they are the windows of mind. Mind is a bundle of thoughts but don’t chant anything to get out of your thoughts - this might activate another part of the brain which is not preferred at this moment.

4.   Breath: We reached the main part. Have you wondered "Geez, How can I sit without thinking anything?"? Well, you need to surpass your mind and the intellect, so you can think about your breath. Remember making them normal after the first few deep breaths? Drift your thoughts of the breath to observing your breath... not deep breath, your normal, uncontrolled, natural way of breathing. Amazing feeling...

     

      Observe it... you'll feel that it enters through the nostrils and travels till the abdomen... well, not really, if you continue observing this. You'll feel your breath travelling lesser and lesser distance, soon travelling only till your manly (or womanly) chest. Hey, not just till the chest, it shortens and thins and gradually confines itself into travelling only through the nostrils... you won't feel it going to your lungs!!! Don't Panic. Continue and you will find that it confines to just a small spot between your eyebrows. 

      Are you thinking that the oxygen is not reaching the lungs and you’ll die soon? Added to this is the irritation of itching and worse feeling all over your body, especially your face. Well, this is the moment. You are being showered by cosmic energy (This is a million dollar topic and we'll deal about it later). You now live with this energy, and not oxygen. You now slide away to absolute no-thought-state – Nirmal Stiti. Congratulations. This will help your spirit to get ready for Astral Travel. (We'll deal about it later). 

      This is the moment we have been waiting for. Stay so as long as possible.

5.     Finishing: Once you feel really exhausted and bad, you might want to come back to real world. This means that you've made some wrong move and that you have filled your mind with one thought, a thought of feeling that you are out of the previous world. This is normal. Once you become experienced, you'll know when to stop. 

      So what's the big deal? Hmm... It’s with coming back. You feel like coming back like a thunder (usually with a cough). But don't do so. Once you want to enjoy the old world, try taking a sudden intake of air. This would be difficult and will be once very small one. You should try to do that. If you can or can't do that, then exhale slowly (at least 5 seconds). Inhale again deeply, Exhale... enjoy this deep breathing for some 5 reps. Now, though not necessary, try Triangle Breathing (Inhale using say 5 seconds, Hold for 5seconds, Exhale for 5 seconds. We'll talk about this in the coming article). 

      Now very slowly take your hands and rub against each other firmly and create some small heat. Now keep your palms on your eyes and enjoy the heat for some 5-10 seconds. Take away your hand. Slowly open your eyes. Smile.

6.   Now you might want to wash your face with clean water. This feels like ecstasy, though not even close to it. Once you get better at this, you can reach Nirmal Stiti in less than a minute.

      Done.

EXPERIENCE

      The first time I came across this was many years back. I just meditated. And I had a strange feeling. It was like awful feeling, with some awsomeness in it. Being curious, I checked the internet and learnt that this was a least bit similar to Meditation to Nirmal Stiti. 

      Of course I din't reach Nirmal Stiti the first time. So I read and inquired about this Nirmal Stiti and started practicing it. To learn this meditation, was like, against my logic. You know, this contradicts the 'fact' that we need air to live.

      Here goes the good news. I couldn't do it. I felt bad. But I recollected all about the word that started with 'P' - Practice. Yes, I did again and again. Its like learning to ride a bicycle. We fall hundreds of times. But do we stop? No. Because we were kids at that time and kids are well known for their 'Try Again' approach. They never feel disappointed, because they don't know what disappointment is. Yes, be a kid.

      Remember, being like a kid can't get you correct. You should have the kiddy attitudes with your grown-up intellect.

      We need air - these are what our world has taught us. Be a kid who doesn't know this. Be a kid who believes what they hear... and remember you heard only me saying that you can live wihtout air in Nirmal Stiti. Yes, this is the inspiration I got from Yogi masters.

Benefits of this are innumerable. You'll feel happy. You'll be relieved of common diseases like cold, cough, chest pain, etc. and some sort of pain after ONLY ONE average session of 5 minutes. Isn't that great? This can help you in your Kundalini Meditation (which we'll discuss later) whose procedure is almost same in the initial stages.

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