Abdominal Breathing

[Cynikal Mantis]

Our overall health depends on many factors, but one of the most important is how we breathe. Because of the increasing stress in our lives, our unhealthy sedentary life styles, and the prevailing image of the hard, flat belly that we find in fashion magazines and health clubs across U.K, our breathing has become extremely superficial. Most of us have little understanding of either diaphragmatic breathing or deep, abdominal breathing. Our diaphragm moves very little, and we seldom use our abdomen and belly to help us breathe. Though most of us engaged in abdominal breathing as babies and young children, we have gradually become upper chest breathers. The end result of our poor breathing habits is not only insufficient oxygen to our brain and the other cells of our body, but also insufficient movement in our internal organs and in the fluids upon which our health depends. Without this oxygen and movement we quickly become susceptible to illness and disease.

The Mechanics of Diaphragmatic and Abdominal Breathing
A glimpse into the mechanics of diaphragmatic breathing and abdominal breathing shows why this is so. The first thing to understand is that the diaphragm is a dome-shaped structure that not only assists in breathing, but also acts as a natural partition between our heart and lungs on the one hand, and our stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, kidneys, bladder, and small and large intestines on the other. The top of the diaphragm actually supports the heart, while the bottom of the diaphragm is attached all the way around our lower ribs and connects also to our lower lumbar vertebrae. When we are breathing fully and deeply, our diaphragm moves downward as we inhale and upward as we exhale. The more the diaphragm can move, the more our lungs are able to expand, which means that more oxygen can be taken in and more carbon dioxide released with each breath.

The Impact of Diaphragmatic and Abdominal Breathing on Our Health
How does diaphragmatic and abdominal breathing help the diaphragm move more and thus improve our health? Remember that the diaphragm is attached all around the lower ribcage and has strands going down to the lumbar vertebrae. When we breathe fully and deeply, the belly, lower ribcage, and lower back all expand on inhalation, thus drawing the diaphragm down deeper into the abdomen, and retract on exhalation. In deep, abdominal breathing, the upward and downward movement of the diaphragm, combined with the outward and inward movement of the belly, ribcage, and lower back, helps to detoxify our inner organs, promote blood flow and peristalsis, and pump the lymph more efficiently through our lymphatic system. The lymphatic system, of course, is an important part of our immune system and has a great impact on our health.

Abdominal and Diaphragmatic Breathing for Relaxation
Many of us breathe too fast for the conditions in which we find ourselves, that is, we actually hyperventilate. This kind of breathing has many bad effects on our physical and emotional health. When our breath is full and deep, however, involving not only the respiratory muscles of the chest but also the belly, lower ribcage, and lower back, we begin to breathe more slowly, since each breath takes in more oxygen and releases more carbon dioxide. This slower breathing, combined with the rhythmical pumping influence of our diaphragm, abdomen, and belly, helps turn on our parasympathetic nervous system--our "relaxation response." Such breathing helps to harmonize our nervous system and reduce the amount of stress in our lives. And this, of course, has a positive impact on our overall health.

Breathing Exercises Can Be Harmful to Your Health
Everyday we see more and more books being published outlining various advanced yoga breathing exercises. But until we learn how to integrate natural, abdominal breathing into our lives, many of these advanced yoga breathing (pranayama) exercises can be harmful to our physical and psychological health. (Such exercises include alternate nostril breathing, reverse breathing, and breath retention.) The key to natural, diaphragmatic and abdominal breathing is to begin to learn to sense unnecessary tension in our bodies and to learn how to release this tension. This requires great inner attention and awareness. It requires learning the art of self-sensing and self-observation. An authentic, beneficial work with our breath begins with increasing our awareness. Without sufficient awareness, without great sensitivity to what is happening inside our bodies, any efforts to change our breathing will at best have no effect whatsoever (we'll quickly stop making any efforts at all), and at worst will create more tension and stress in our lives and thus undermine our health and well-being even further.

[Cang Long]

Qigong

To followers of the yin-yang wuxing theory, everything in the world is either yin, the nagative and feminine force, or yang, the positive and masculine force. The two forces complement and oppose each other. It is not difficult to understand yin and yang, if we think of "the complementary opposites" such as heaven and earth, positive and negative, male and female, life and death.

Wuxing which arises from yin-yang refers to the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and their different characteristics. It is said that wood arises from water and prevails over earth; fire arises from wood and prevails over metal; earth arises from fire and prevails over water; metal arises from earth and prevails over wood; water arises from metal and prevails over fire.

The five organs of the human body are compared to the five elements and are said to behave likewise:

Liver (wood) complements the heart (fire) and opposes the spleen (earth); the heart complements the spleen and opposes the lungs (metal); the spleen complements the lungs and opposes the kidneys (water); the lungs complement the kidneys and oppose the liver, the kidneys complement the liver and oppose the heart.

Yin-yang wuxing formulates the theory of the jing-luo -- that the human body contains vertical trunks (jing) and branches (luo) made up of 20 invisible passages, 12 meridians (zhengjing) and eight pulses (qijing). They are different from the nervous system known to modern medical students. These passages are divided into two groups: yin and yang. In each group there are six meridians which extend into four limbs and four pulses which are distributed in the body. The internal ones are called yinyang, and the external ones the yang-jing. These meridians and pulses carry a "life force" through the whole body. If the "life force" cannot flow easily in the passages, the body becomes ill. The balance of yin-yang wuxing is essential for peace, harmony and health. Diseases and ailments of the body occur when the balance of yin-yang wuxing is upset. For instance, if the fire element in the heart is too strong for the metal element in the lungs, the physiological balance cannot be maintained. The dominance of heart over lungs can cause the loss of weight, general lassitude, and a pain in the chest. Qigong breathing exercises can help restore the balance.

Since these passages are anatomically invisible, their existence remains a matter of dispute. Although the theory seems to "unscientific", its principles are precise and based on a belief that man has a spiritual as well as a physical existence.

Breathing exercise
Qigong is the Chinese terminology for the system of breathing-control exercises. Literally, qi means "air", which implies a "life force". Gong means an art. Qigong is the art which benefits health and prolongs life.

Qigong is not a religion, it is based on the philosophical principles derived from the theory of yin-yang wuxing in the Book of Changes. In traditional Chinese medicine, yin refers to the tangible body and its blood circulation; yang, the invisible qi and the spirit.

There are three stages in practising qigong:

1) Deep breathing-control
Qi moves in jing-luo, the passages of meridians and pulses, just as blood flows through blood vessels. The qigong state of deep breathing is similar to fetal breathing in the womb. The fetus cannot breathe externally, it breathes internally and there is a movement of qi.

Breathe gently through the nostrils with mouth shut, so as to put the qi into motion. The aim is to achieve proper control of and the ability to trace qi in your body. To imagine this, think of the movement of qi as follows: First, the qi rises from the baihui (see diagram) point and moves downward past both ears. Next, the divisions of qi meet at the throat and separate again at the naral and go down to the huiyin point. After this, they separate to travel along the collar bones to the chest. They then meet again once more to flow along the inner legs to the feet. Finally, they rush into the ground through the yongquan points.

2) Sitting in meditation
Sit on a stool upright with the baihui and huiyin points on a line and your eyes downwards, imagining they are closed. Imagine there is something over your head at the baihui point, but don't put any force on it. Let it go gently. Hold your legs comfortably, stretch your arms downwards and curve your thumbs and forefingers a little imagining that they are touching one another. Separate the middle, ring and little fingers gently.

There are two steps leading to meditation:
One is to remain calm and collected. This does not mean to stop thinking, but implies making your mind concentrate on only one thing without random thoughts. The other is to achieve total emptiness and calmness. This refers to a higher state of serenity, in which one thinks of nothing.

3) Dantian gong
Apothecaries of antiquity believed that longevity could be enjoyed if pills were prepared in a special way, but others held that the so-called pills of longevity were in reality in the human body. In Chinese, the pill is known as dan. Dantian means the pill region, a region three fingers breadth below the navel in the lower part of the abdomen, located between the bladder and rectum. This area is known as qihai, the sea of air, because all the passages meet there just as all the rivers flow into the sea.

Dantian opens when there is qi and closes when there is none. The qi may descend into it during exhalation. If you are able to deliver qi into dantian through the achievement of breathing-control art, you will be as pure as a piece of white jade and as serene as a lake without a ripple. You will feel as light as a feather and that the qi inside the body is linked with the universe and is limitless as the sea and sky. You will be imbued with a spirit as the rainbow spanning the sky.

http://www.pasadena.edu/chinese/cultural/wushu.html