Deep Peace and Breathing
We start with physical/mechanical and graduate towards energetic and then to the more abstractions of ideas. At any point along the way we can shift to a major change of more optimistic attitude and expanded breath. This can be called a paradigm shift.
Learning to breathe more from the belly can have a calming effect on the entire nervous system. It is a definite step in the right direction. But it is still not an optimal breath. For some, the belly breath is an invitation towards the illusion of breathing deeper. Just because the breath is in the belly doesn’t mean the diaphragm is traveling up into the chest to squeeze the lungs so they will remove the CO2.
Drawing downward instead of outward in a “phantom” diaphragmatic breath.
I’ve called it the “phantom” as I’ve observed some (not all) emphysema patients breathing with huge belly protrusion on the in-breath. Also, people with big bellies and no energy. Like they were taking in enormous amounts of air because their stomach was sticking out so much. They don’t take in more air because the diaphragm probably isn’t rising enough to suck any in. It just protrudes.
The key to breathing is the exhale, not the inhale, expanding the rib cage, and causing the diaphragm to rise higher. You need to empty the cup before you fill it. If the diaphragm does not rise higher then it did before, and the ribs do not expand to allow the lungs to expand, you can have little or no increase in breathing volume. There are specific techniques borrowed from classical voice training, martial arts and an esoteric yoga discipline that cause the rib cage to expand and the diaphragm to rise higher (exhale deeper) and then draw in more air than before.
Exercises 2, 8 and the techniques in Fundamentals #10 address this. Some are quite tricky and may well require individual instruction in-person or in some instances over the phone to a third party partner.
“During a Serenity Breathing Meditation* session with Mike, I received more release of tension and a stronger sense of inner peace than I ever dreamed possible.” – Ellen H., retired former manager of a California State Agency. (*Audio cassette of same name.)The above testimonial refers to a recorded guided exercise which is a quite different exercise than the ones previously referred to. Assuming reasonably good health and simply needing a way to calm the mind and body, it is wonderfully relaxing and peace producing and has even eliminated sleep apnea symptoms. It is also good for the chronically over stimulated.
Recommended supplemental program
MEGACALM
There is an extreme example of so called inner peace. I call
it “super megacalm”. Some long term meditators seem to always be deeply calm and
never get excited. I know it could be a lot worse but to some observers, it can seem that
nothing emotional ever affects them and too often emotion in others is seen by the
meditators as something to back away from; As if passion were a negative or threatening
trait. Your passions can guide and nurture you. They do not have to dominate or seduce
you. An artform of life is maintaining this balance.
UNDERSTANDING INTERNAL PEACE
I facilitated a breathing/stress management
workshop] at a local county jail: Breathing and my Himalayan "singing
bowls" (see Peace Within].
Towards the end of the workshop an inmate told me that he felt very much at
peace, it was foreign to him, and he wanted to understand what the significance of how he
felt. I told him that if he felt at peace he would naturally choose activities and
strategies that stemmed from or supported that experience. If he felt anxiety and or
agitation he might well choose activities and responses that more resembled anger and
defensiveness, and that the choice was his. He thanked me, and gently smiling, quietly sat
down.
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