Welcome,
I'm Steph,
And this is an introduction to the complete breath.
A gentle reminder to practice all methods through your nose unless otherwise notated.
The first method is known to the Western world as high or shallow breathing.
This is breathing into the upper part of your lungs and collarbone and is typically the breath of when you are nervous or anxious.
Let's try it.
Expel all of the air from your lungs and raise the shoulders and collarbone as you inhale.
You'll find that the amount of air inhaled is far below normal.
Exhale.
Inhale a full breath and feel the difference.
High breathing is the worst form of breathing and the study of anatomy shows that this requires the greatest expenditure of energy with the smallest amount of benefit.
The second method is called mid-breathing.
Expel all the air from your lungs.
Inhale into your ribs only.
Don't move your stomach.
Exhale.
Inhale a full breath and feel the difference.
The third method is called low breathing.
This is known to the Western world as abdominal breathing or deep breathing.
Expel all the air from your lungs and fill your belly with as much air as you can.
Exhale.
Inhale and notice that out of the three of these methods so far,
This one gives you the most air inhaled.
The trouble with these three methods of breathing is that none of them filled the lungs completely.
This next method called the complete breath is the best method of breathing known to science.
It is known as returning to nature as this is the way that infants breathe and I recommend that you practice this several times a day until your muscle memory remembers this.
It is all three breaths together as one flow.
Sit erect.
Expell all the air from your lungs.
Breathing through your nose,
Inhale slowly and fill your stomach with air.
Then your lungs and your collarbone.
Hold the breath.
You will feel the abdomen slightly drawn in.
This movement is giving your lungs support.
Exhale slowly.
Pull the abdomen towards your spine to get all the air out of your lungs.
You may see this movement as three steps but that is not correct.
Try to make it one flow.
You may feel lightheaded and that is just oxygen getting to the parts of your body that has not been in a while.
Let's do it once more.
Sit erect.
Expell all the air from your lungs.
Breathing through your nose,
Inhale slowly and fill your stomach with air.
Then your lungs.
And your collarbone.
Hold the breath.
Exhale slowly and pull the abdomen towards your spine to get all the air out of your lungs.
Breathe normally.
As you feel,
This breath is activating all of your necessary muscles,
The whole respiratory system and all of your cells.
This is your natural state.
If you have trouble with this practice,
A little practice will make perfect.
Your body will remember.
It is known that once your body learns this way of breathing,
It will never willingly return to your old methods.
You can find a daily meditation practice to integrate this breath work into your routine in the next podcast.
Thank you for listening.
Namaste.
