How it works 

Breathing is something we all do from the moment we are born until the last breath we take.  It is an automatic physiological function of the body.  It happens without our having to “do” anything.  However, unlike other bodily functions like digestion and circulation, we can bring our consciousness to the breath and quite easily affect it.  One way to affect the breath is to connect it, removing the pauses between the inhalation and exhalation. This simple change of “connected breathing” has an immediate short term effect on how we feel as well as a long term effect on our lives when done repeatedly in hour long sessions, first under guidance and later on your own. 

Try it.  Try as you read this to put your hands on your belly and breath, twenty times, deeply into the belly, the belly extending towards your hands on the inhalation and the belly relaxing on the exhalation, moving in towards the spine.  Breathe through the mouth, with the mouth open, jaw relaxed.   Connect the inhalation and exhalation, taking away the pause you normally have after inhaling and after exhaling.  And as you breathe in, consciously focus on breathing in oxygen (the life force) also called prana or chi.  As you breathe out simply relax your muscles and release the breath.  The in-breath is long and the out-breath is short.

Feel the circular pattern of the breath in and out without pause.  Breathe 20 times like this.  Mouth open and relaxed, breathe long in and short out, deep into the belly, connected breathing without pause.  Take a moment after you are done to keep the eyes closed and sense how it feels in your body. 

This is a simple exercise in connected breathing.  How did it feel?

No matter how full or limited our breathing is we are able to continue to live and function as long we continue to breath.  Yet what are the long term effects of limited breathing? And how does the breath get limited in the first place?

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