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The Art of Breathingby Jeremy Liebbe"Breathe in, breathe out," the song Machinehead by Bush repeats over and over. Breathing, a simple function of life required by our bodies to bring in clean, useful oxygen and be rid of carbon dioxide waste. A task in our lives so simple that we, quite literally, can do it in our sleep or without even realizing that we are doing it. Yet is breathing truly as simple as it seems? The way we breathe can effect us in an unimaginable number of ways. When something startles us we take a forceful and rapid inhalation of air, forcing oxygen through our bodies and beginning a chain reaction that helps to put us on our highest alert. Lamas breathing techniques can lower our pain threshold during times of stress, reducing or even eliminating the need for medicinal pain management. Breathing slowly in through the nose and out through the mouth relaxes the body in preparation for meditation. The list goes on and on showing how breathing effects our bodies physically, and most people are fully aware of these phenomenon - yet there are few who ever begin to understand how breathing, and the art of breathing, can help shape the world around us in both physical and magickal ways. Take a moment to think back in your life to some of your key moments in breathing. Your first breath gave you the ability to sound out your emotions and desires, the magick of vocal communication. A breath of warm, steamy air relaxes both the body and soul, helping you to surpass illness. A gasp of cold, crisp mountain air during snow fall leaves you feeling clean and refreshed. The breath found in the warm kiss of a lover can be more powerful than the strongest drug. A sharp inhalation in response to a fear stimulus signals your body to tighten your muscles in preparation for fight or flight. Patterned deep-breathing calms the nerves and reduces pain. The examples go on and on demonstrating how we use breathing techniques in our everyday world for mundane tasks. Continuing from the more mundane tasks and accomplishments of breathing, we can focus our breathing techniques to be more useful to us in our magick. The Japanese Ki or Chinese Ch'i practitioner uses focused inhalations and exhalations to draw, focus, manipulate and expend life-force energies. Inhaling the energies around allow you to refresh yourself and draw a surface charge that can be later focused and utilized or, in some cases, draw energies or ailments out of another for balancing or healing purposes. Inhaling residual energies around you can also give you a sort of reconnaissance of the area, letting you know who and what is currently around you or has been here recently. Exhaling focuses our energies outward in a variety of ways, each unique and dependant on how we choose to focus outward -- to attack, to heal, to defend, to let others know we are here or any of a number of other purposes. Once we begin to understand how powerful something as simple as breathing can be we can begin to combine that power with an item used for focusing that power -- the blade. For this exercise choose a blade that fits your personality, your level of comfort and your style of magick. For some an atheme or bolene, for others a full sized sword such as a katana. Most any blade will work, even a common kitchen knife if necessary, however, the higher quality blades as well as those that are hand-crafted, especially by magick users, will yield better results. Once you have found the blade you will use for this exercise it is best to start out playing with the blade, moving the weapon back and forth in slicing and sometimes piercing motions to help awaken the steel. After a few minutes of play, hold the blade in your dominant hand. Look at the weapon, notice how the energies of the steel interact with your own energies. Do they seem to work together as if partners in a dance? If not, that's okay, most blades will take some time to work fully with you and, if not, there is probably another blade out there that fits you better. Go ahead and finish this exercise, you might be surprised by the results. Now, point the blade at the earth. Exhale slowly through the weapon, using it as a focus for your energies as you send a part of yourself below. Then inhale slowly back through the blade, absorbing and feeling every little detail of what comes back to you from the earth. Point towards the sky, extending a breath of air to the heavens through the blade as before then inhaling through the piece, noting and absorbing what returns. After grounding your weapon, perform the same breath exercise to each of the four corners, four guardian spirits or four directions -- whichever is most appropriate to your path of magick. Now spend some time again playing with your blade. Notice the difference made by awakening the blade and allowing it to sync with the universe? Breathing, even as simple as it seems, is one of the cornerstones of magick. Without being able to control our breathing we cannot control ourselves or our abilities. So, go forth, my friend, and breathe. Jeremy Liebbe is a regular contributor to SwordMagick.com and has been with us since the dawn of this realm as our lead web designer. He is a martial artist with expertise in both Isshen-Ryu and ninjutsu. His martial weapon studies began with the bo staff and in recent years has begun to incorporate knife fighting as well as the katana and jian. Jeremy is a student and practitioner of the Eastern magickal arts and has many gifts including guided meditation, reiki and Ki-combat. After studying computer science and psychology with the University of North Texas and then the University of Texas at Dallas, Jeremy began to pursue a career in law enforcement in Dallas, Texas, where he also teaches at one of the local police academies. He plans include future studies to complete his masters degree and doctoral degree in psychology. |
Weekends Come visit us at Scarborough Faire in Waxahachi, Texas (30 minutes south of Dallas). Directions and ticket information can be found at the festival's web site. |
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The Technique of Magickal Breathing
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This post was written by Donald Michael Kraig
on March 10, 2010 | Comments (0)
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Have you ever noticed that there are people who want to tell you how to breathe, usually beginning by telling you that the way you are breathing is all wrong? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been breathing all my life without their instructions, and have been very successful with it. There are many ways of breathing, and all of them have certain good and questionable qualities. So in this post I’m not going to tell you how to breathe. Instead, I’ll show you some of the ways we breathe, their advantages and disadvantages, and give you the choice. Personally, I think the ideal thing is to practice all of these methods and be able to choose the one you need at any particular time.
This particular post is strictly about Western understandings. There are far more Eastern techniques and I’ll look at some of them in a future post.
Upper Chest Breathing
The easiest way to tell if you are chest breathing is to simply observe yourself. If your chest is expanding and contracting with each breath, chances are you are doing Upper Chest Breathing. Another sign of UCB is that your shoulders move up and down with each breath. The mechanics of this consist of your neck muscles and chest muscles lifting the breast bone and upper ribs. However, the breast bone can’t just come up, it also comes forward, taking the ribs with it. This opens space around the upper lobes of the lungs, allowing them to fill with air.
Contrary to common belief, in some situations this is a great way to breathe. For example, in dangerous situations it will allow you to tense the muscles of the abdomen, protecting the internal organs. The organs of the chest are protected by the ribs. Chest breathing may also be good for appealing to the opposite gender. In both sexes it allows you to contract your stomach muscles, giving the impression of a smaller waist. In men, it allows a male to show a broader chest, similar to the way a peacock displays its tail. In women it allows the breasts to be presented to attractive males. This is usually done on an unconscious level, if at all.
UCB also has some strong negatives. It does not provide for the full use of the lungs down to the bottom of the lower lobes. This allows pollutants to sit in the lungs—possibly harming the lungs or entering the bloodstream—rather than being expelled. It doesn’t make full use of the lungs. Years ago, when wearing tight corsets was common for women, the clothes literally enforced this type of breathing. As it prevented getting a full breath, some women would actually pass out as a result of not getting enough oxygen. Rather than simply end the clothing style, designers came up with special “fainting couches” for the women who would pass out.
While UCB can be good at times, using this type of breath as your regular breathing mode is generally not a good idea. Take a finger, press it deeply between two ribs, and move it back and forth in that space. If you detect a soreness, those small chest muscles (known as the intercostals) are doing work they’re not designed for.
Belly Breathing
You may have heard that you should be breathing from the belly. Unfortunately, this, at best, is only partially true. You can tell if you’re belly breathing if your stomach moves in and out but your lower ribs don’t move much and the upper chest doesn’t move at all. Belly breathing gives a fuller breath than UCB. It allows partial use of the lung’s upper lobes and fuller use of the lower ones. It helps the blood become more fully oxygenated and allows the lungs to flush out any pollutants that have sunk to the bottom area. It also has the effect of massaging the stomach’s organs and can help with digestion. With regular use it may actually help with problems like indigestion, constipation, heartburn, etc.
But belly breathing is not perfect. First, because it doesn’t open the upper ribs, it doesn’t make full use of the upper lobes of the lungs. Second, it doesn’t center on the one muscle designed to work your lungs, the diaphragm. It pushes down on the abdominal organs. They have to go somewhere, so they push the stomach out, usually to the front and sides. This can actually give rise to a “middle-age spread” long before middle age, or to a “beer belly” even though you don’t drink beer. Still, this is a particularly good way to build up that “fire in the belly,” and strengthen the feeling of courageousness.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
The diaphragm is the largest muscle in the body, looking like the top of an umbrella, separating the chest (under the ribs) from the abdomen. With diaphragmatic breathing this muscle contracts below the lungs as the lower ribs expand to the sides and the muscles open up the lower back. This results in a slight vacuum within the lungs, causing air to rush in. To exhale, the lower ribs and muscles (including the diaphragm) contract, pushing the air out of the lungs.
This allows the lower part of the lungs to fill fully with air without pushing the abdominal organs out of place. It’s great for doing certain types of breathwork, including yoga, because to be successful with it requires a straight back. You really can’t do this hunched over. It’s good for posture and for clearing the mind. It cleans out the lungs, allows you to get a fuller breath, and massages the abdominal organs in place. Classically trained singers often use this type of breathing or do a modification of it called “full body breathing.” In this type of breathing you actually do diaphragmatic breathing, but imagine that you are breathing all the way down to the toes. As you exhale with your entire body you get a strong foundation that supports your vocal “instrument.”
The Complete or Magickal Breath
When doing diaphragmatic breathing, the upper ribs do not expand, preventing you from using the entire expanse of the lungs to their fullest. This is resolved with the complete breath, also known as the Magickal Breath. Most people do not use this all the time, so by focusing on this you bring your consciousness to an awareness that something special—something magickal—is taking place. Most people are unfamiliar with it. So rather than talk about it, the easiest way to explain it is to describe it.
1. Sit or preferably stand with your back straight.
2. Take a deep breath by whatever way is normal for you and expel all the air completely. You may want to do this a couple of times.
3. With the breath still expelled, move your shoulders back so they are straight from left to right.
4. Slowly and consciously begin to inhale. As you do, allow your upper chest to expand.
5. Continue the breath, allowing it to move lower in your lungs. Allow your ribs to expand out.
6. Continue the breath, allowing it to fill the lowest part of your lungs. Allow your stomach to expand so there is room for the air to totally and completely fill the lungs.
7. Hold the inhalation for a moment.
8. Without contracting the ribs, bring in your stomach, exhaling your breath.
9. Repeat steps 6–8 for the duration of the magickal breath.
10. When you are ready to end this work, simply exhale, allowing the ribs to contract, and return to your normal breathing pattern.
Using the magickal breath may feel quite strange and difficult during your first several experiments. You may find that certain muscles—especially those of the sides, lower back and the diaphragm—will become sore. With practice, that will fade away. As you can see, it’s complete because it uses the entire lungs and appropriate musculature. It’s magickal because it’s a great way for doing breathwork that will build magickal energy.
The Four-Fold Breath
On of the most popular ways to use the breath to build energy is with the four-fold breath. The concept is simple:
Inhale to a count of four. Hold for a count of four.
Exhale for a count of four. Hold for a count of four. Repeat.
The count can be fast or slow, whatever works for you. If you have difficulty, you can change this to inhaling and exhaling for a count of four while holding (after both the inhale and exhale) only to a count of two. The idea is to consciously regularize your breathing pattern. For me, I have found that this is primarily good only for more meditative work.
However, if you perform this within the context of the Magickal Breath—doing the four-fold breath during step nine—I’ve found a practitioner can quickly build up magickal energy that can be directed for any magickal purpose.
Give these techniques a try and see how they work for you. Please use the comments to let readers know your results.
If you have other ideas about breathwork, you can share them in the comments section, too.
