Natural Breathing

Authentic Breathing® Resources LLC
Natural Breathing For Health, Well-Being, Longevity, and Self-Transformation

"The process of breathing is a living metaphor for understanding how to expand our sense of ourselves and be present not just to the miraculous energies of life that are both in and around us but also to the deep silence and spaciousness out of which these energies arise.

By checking in on your breathing, by noticing all the inner and outer movements of your breath as they take place, you are actually getting in touch with a deeper, more-conscious dimension of your own being.

Allowing your breath to take you deeper inside yourself, however, takes practice.

So check in on your breathing right now.

Allow all the sensations of your breath, all the internal and external movements related to how you are breathing now, to enter your awareness.

See if you can discover a quiet, non-judgmental place in yourself.

Just be aware, without any attempt to manipulate your breathing, of what your breath feels like and how this awareness influences your sensation of yourself.

Breath is life and movement. Let your breath engage and fill every part of your body, especially your belly, back, spine, and chest.

Inhale and exhale through your nose.

To transform your breathing, start with your exhalation, with “letting go.”

Be sure your belly stays relaxed. Let it expand as you inhale and retract as you exhale. Your belly is the foundation of your breath.

A long, slow exhalation helps harmonize your diaphragm and turns on your “relaxation response.”

Sense the natural pause after exhalation; let yourself rest there for a moment.

Let your inhalation arise by itself, when it’s ready.

Remember, you are a breathing being, alive right now and here. Let yourself feel the mystery and the miracle of your breath and your life as often as you can.

How do you feel right now?

One of the simplest, safest, and most powerful breathing practices you can undertake on your own behalf is to consciously follow your breathing in the many circumstances of your life.

As you inhale, simply be aware that you are inhaling. As you exhale, simply be aware that you are exhaling. Try this practice for 10 minutes or so at a time at least three times a day. It will help free you from your automatic thoughts and emotional reactions and thus enable you to wake up in your daily life more often, to live with more receptivity and clarity in the present moment.

You may find this practice especially useful at moments when you are anxious or angry. With roots in Buddhism and the other great spiritual traditions, this is a wonderful practice for both beginners and advanced practitioners.

Natural breathing involves the harmonious interplay of the lungs, diaphragm, belly, chest, back, and other parts of the human body. In natural breathing, the depth and speed of the breath is appropriate to the actual demands of the moment, as long as those demands are not being conditioned by unnecessary tensions, contractions, or restrictions in the body.

During inhalation, the diaphragm moves downward massaging, either directly or indirectly, all the organs, and the energetic wave of breath moves upward through entire body, opening the belly, chest, back, and lungs.

During exhalation, the diaphragm moves upward massaging the heart, and the wave of breath moves downward closing the lungs, chest, back, and belly.

In human beings, natural breathing occurs mainly through the nose. This not only ensures the natural filtering, warming, and moisturizing of the air, but it also helps ensure that we don't release carbon dioxide too quickly.

The word “deep” in the expression “deep breathing” does not (or at least should not) refer to the volume of air in any given time period but rather to the depth that the diaphragm is able to move downward and upward on inhalation and exhalation.

The farther the diaphragm can move downward on inhalation and upward on exhalation, the deeper the breath. Except for those with severe pulmonary problems, a person who breathes more deeply most often breathes more slowly as well.

Deep breathing depends on the ability of the diaphragm, belly, lower ribs, and spine all to participate in the breathing process. If there is too much stress or tension in and around these areas, deep breathing will not be possible.

“Shallow breathing” means, or at least should mean, that the diaphragm moves down and up very little during breathing. In fact, many people are shallow breathers, not because their lives dictate shallow breathing, but rather because of weakness and tension in their breathing muscles, or a lack of good coordination.

Instead of using their diaphragms effectively, they try to use the secondary breathing muscles of their chest. Many people who try to do deep breathing without being able to or understanding how, end up simply tensing their secondary breathing muscles and lifting their shoulders and upper chest to try to take in more air. In such cases, their diaphragms move very little, and they lose the many benefits of diaphragmatic breathing, which include an internal massage of all the inner organs, aiding venous blood flow and lymphatic flow, and much more.

Many of us, without knowing it, habitually "hyperventilate"—that is, we take quick, shallow breaths from the top of our chest. These quick, shallow breaths sharply reduce the level of carbon dioxide in our blood. This reduced level of carbon dioxide causes the arteries, including the carotid artery going to the brain, to constrict, thus reducing the flow of blood throughout the body. When this occurs, no matter how much oxygen we may breathe into our lungs, our brain and body will experience a shortage of oxygen.

The lack of sufficient oxygen switches on the sympathetic nervous system—our "fight or flight" reflex—which makes us tense, anxious, and irritable. It also reduces our ability to think clearly, and tends to put us at the mercy of obsessive thoughts and images. Some researchers believe that hyperventilation can actually magnify our psychological problems and conflicts, and that chronic hyperventilation is intimately bound up with our anxieties, apprehensions, and fears.

To breathe naturally and authentically, our belly needs to be supple. It needs to be able to expand on inhalation and retract on exhalation. This bellows-like movement of the belly supports the downward and upward movements of the diaphragm.

When the belly expands on inhalation, the diaphragm can move farther downward into the abdomen, allowing the lungs to expand more fully.

When the belly retracts on exhalation, the diaphragm can move further upward, helping the lungs to expel gases more fully.

The increased downward and upward movements of the diaphragm, along with the outward and inward movements of the belly, not only help to slow down our breath rate and to take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide more efficiently, but they also help to massage all our internal organs, including the heart.

This "internal massage" has a healthful impact on digestion, elimination, blood flow, the immune system, and the nervous system. People who are shallow breathers either by habit or by design lose these many benefits of deep breathing.

Learning how to breathe more naturally and efficiently, the way our bodies were designed to breathe, can have a powerful influence on our metabolism and overall sense of well-being.

Healthy, natural breathing makes us feel better physically, emotionally, and mentally, and this has a beneficial influence on the quantity and quality of our exercise, the way we look at and feel about ourselves, the kinds and quantities of food we eat, the amount of energy we have.

Among other benefits, healthy breathing helps us achieve the right balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our cells, which has a beneficial influence on our metabolism.

Our breath is an incredible gift, a fundamental force that has subtle interrelationships with all the different sides of ourselves--body, mind, emotions, and spirit."