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November 7, 2005
Are You Over-Manipulating Your Breath In Your Qigong Practice?
The biggest open secret to qigong breathing for superior health is simply to breathe "naturally" from the abdomen, like we did as babies. There are many powerful manipulative breathing techniques which you can use to achieve short-range results. Special snorting and compressed breath/holding techniques can work for directing healing energy to a particular area to build strength, as we practice in iron shirt qigong.
However the chronic use of manipulative breathing techniques may have serious health consequences and I recommend you treat them with caution.
In this qigong blog I want to point you to a breathing-skill resource I have mentioned before: Dennis Lewis and his site Authentic-Breathing.com Dennis has devoted his life for many years to deep research into every aspect of breathing for health and spiritual well being.
Here is a brief extract from his recent newsletter on the potential dangers of manipulative breathing techniques:
“I just returned on Sunday night (Sept. 11) from presenting at The
Future of Breathing symposium at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
in MA. Other presenters included Leslie Kaminoff, Robert Fried, David
Hykes, Lynn Martin, and Kelly McGonigal. It was a truly amazing event,
with a number of different approaches to breathing being
explored--from the biochemical to the emotional to the spiritual. What
became clear to all the participants--which included yoga teachers and
students, MDs, alternative healers, and many others interested in the
breath, was that the breath is both a miracle and a mystery. What also
became clear is that our breath is intimately involved in every aspect
of our lives--physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Poor
breathing not only contributes to hundreds of health problems but it
also conditions us to living at a very low level of our real potential.
The conference explored a number of the myths surrounding breathing,
myths that one often hears propagated not only in yoga classes but
also in breathing books. One of the biggest myths, of course, is that
"deep breathing" is always good for us. Even assuming that most people
understand how to take a deep breath, which they don't, this makes
absolutely no sense at all from the standpoint of the biochemistry of
the breath. For our breathing helps to regulate the oxygen/carbon
dioxide and acid/alkaline balances of our body, upon which our health
depends. Any attempt to manipulate our breathing without knowing the
outcome on these subtle balances can and often does cause serious
problems.
The physiology and chemistry of breathing are so tightly bound up with
the overall functioning of the brain and body that the biggest
challenge of all is to begin to respect the wisdom of the body in
its attempt to keep us functioning in an optimal way given all the
variations and conditions of our lives.”
Thanks Dennis!
I love that old Zen phrase: “Selling Water by the River” – referring to the teaching of meditation techniques for enlightenment. In other words, human beings are already enlightened, they just have to wake up to the fact.
The issue of breathing is linked to that dilemma. Most of us have lost the skill of natural breathing and have to regain an art that we had already mastered at the age of one.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at November 7, 2005 6:38 AM