Welcome to Week 3!
This week is dedicated to the Power of Breathing- which will amaze you!
Listen to the videos and practice the techniques as often as you wish, read the text and follow the meditation.
Research and explore around breathing in your daily life.
My experience with Breathing
There is nothing more natural than breathing, we are constantly doing it without even being conscious of it, but as many resources we have in our body, breathing can be used in many ways and for many purposes.
I first came across breathing more consciously when I started studying singing. Sound is breath. The way we take our breath and its quality determine also the power, volume and quality of the sound, as well as its length. We control our voice because we control our breath.
I was later introduced to reverse breathing- or the way the fetus breathes in the womb. Instead of expanding the belly when breathing in, they shrink it, and expand it when breathing out.
Reverse breathing is used in some Tai Chi techniques. In this case, the martial artist breathes in as they absorb the energy and breathes out as they release it (usually accompanied with an explosive move)
The breath is a way to direct energy in Martial Arts but also in Qigong (energy work)
More precisely, we talk of Taoist Breathing: the art of breathing Chi through our six energy door, the soles of our feet, our pelvis, the palms of our hands and our crown.
Legends even mention Taoist Masters who ended up breathing only Chi instead of oxygen. Those techniques were created in the attempt to reach nothing less than immortality, and their benefits for the health are great.
You don’t have to do any movement to experience it. Simply be conscious of the fact that by breathing in you absorb pure, new energy and by breathing out you release stagnant energy. Another way to think of it is breathing in pure energy and in breathing out, this new energy spreads in all your body.
In the recent years, I started practicing the Wim Hof Method and really enjoy the breathing techniques taught in order to increase the amount of oxygen we absorb (I will speak more about it in Week 5) This technique is the proof that we can “get high on our own supply”
Oxygen is free and breathing is always with us!
I will conclude this text by sharing a brief technique I often use, to calm down or to get energy quickly.
Breath in through the nose for a count of 4
Hold for a count of 7
Breath out through the mouth for a count of 8
Repeat 4 times (and no more than 8 times)
In the years, I came to consider breathing as a powerful tool, that I often use in different ways and in different parts of the day. It is a resource we all have, but only few realise the preciousness and versatility of it.
In some situations, there may be no time to do anything but taking a deep breath or you may have nothing else around you to make you feel better, well breathing can do the job. Remember it!
The meditation I linked below is ideal when you need to gain energy and will power through breathing and visualisation.
Angel Star Coaching 