Corrected breathing and posture

[sciwiz12]

This comes from a book I have been reading, this is simply from the beginning of the book, I have not finished it, but this may help to clear out some of the effects of daily western living.

Abdominal breathing (while in embracing tree pose for good postural allignment and blood circulation)
1. breath air into your lungs while expanding your abdominal region focusing specifically on the area 1and 1/2 inches below the belly button.
2. Without exhaling, send the air in your chest as far down as possible so that you can feel pressure pushing down and the upper part of your stomach containing your organs is minimized (remember to try to be relaxed throughout this process or theoretically you will do yourself more harm than good)
3 exhale allowing your abdominal muscles sink in towards the spine (pulling up the genital organs and tightening up the anus according to the book) That part is uncomfortable to type, but then again I'm being immature about it.
4 inhale expanding the abdominal muscles on every side including the back. (basically just repeat everything, inhaling and exhaling 36 times. Each inhale and exhale is a pair so work up to doing 36 pairs and if you are having trouble, cold hands, poor circulation, or anything, please pm me and I will give you a technique for that. None of these excersizes are recomended for women who are pregnant or people with bad hearts.

[sciwiz12]

I will put reverse breathing up some time, I just don't feel like spending all day posting up different excersizes out of a book, no it is not word for word but I only left out the technical information like what is happening biomechanically. If you feel that you are not getting how this works, pm me and I will try to include any bit that I left out or just try to explain it better in general, hopefully you can all figure it out though. You are just gonna have to look up embracing tree pose though on google images or something, it looks like you are standing with your feet shoulder length apart, knees slightly bent but not beyond the toes, and with your arms positioned basically like they would be if you were actually embracing a tree in a hug.

[Mrs. Darth Vader]

I googled both hugging a tree pose and Embracing a tree pose. One yielded a tree pose only with hands held up high as you are a tree. The other literally showed people hugging trees. Either way both positions seemed to me uncomfortable. I would like to add my two cents if you will not get insulted. For those out there who wish to meditate more comfortably but still do this breathing technique. You still have to stand erect with feet comfortably apart in "parade rest form" or as stated above by sciwiz12. The difference being in where the hands go. Put hands relaxed at your side instead of holding them out to hug your imaginary tree. This way you are not straining to hold your hands up. If you are fighting to hold up your hands than you are not focusing on your breath. This is my opinion having done meditations of this sort. I noticed better results the less stress on other extremities, hands, feet and so on.

[sciwiz12]

Oh well of course you do have a point, I suppose on this matter I should say that it is always important to stay relaxed, but as I have spent many years with experimentation and such, I tend to be relaxed under almost all conditions. Even while in the floating lotus pose which normally puts a strain on the hand. But by practicing techniques like the unbendable arm you learn to us your muscles with tensing or tightening so it becomes more relaxed. At any rate, I am never insulted when people put forth their ideas.

[Mrs. Darth Vader]

sciwiz
Sounds like you have been practicing for a long time if you can get in the difficult positions and still be relaxed. Now I see why you wish to teach. Now I also understand why it is best to be face to face because it is easier to copy the position that is required if you see the instructor right in front of you doing it.

[sciwiz12]

Thank you, I take that as a the first part as a compliment. However I feel I may have been practicing for too long now, I have aquired many physical and mental benefits without worrying highly about the spiritual. At any rate, I promised to teach the second breath when I wasn't feeling lazy, so I will take the liberty to do that now. The next one is called reverse breathing, and it goes along with the packing breath so I will go over both of those. Reverse breathing is kinda like abdominal breathing, how ever the object is to not distend the stomach while inhaling to the lower part of the abdomen. Esentially you are pulling in the stomach on the inhale, and letting it go on the exhale. The packing breath is a little more difficult, so before you get into it you might want to make sure you practice with your awareness until you develop more muscular control over your body. At any rate, with the packing breath you can simply sit on the edge of your chair, start with the regular abdominal breathing until you have inhaled and exhaled at least 36 times, this is sometimes refered to as fanning the flame, kinda like the breathing equivalent to a warm up. Then move into the reverse breathing, pulling your sexual organs up, usng your diaphram to push the air into the lower part of the abdomen, and pulling in the stomach. Remember that relaxation is key, try to be aware of what is happening on the inside of your body. Take a short inhale and hold it, imagine that you are only taking in about 10% of your full capacity. Hold it, when you need to, take another short inhale, also about 10%. After that concentrate on pulling up chi/force energy from the earth through the left side of the anus up to the left kidney. Pack it around the kidney tight while remaining relaxed, most of this is a mental excersise. At this point you should still be maintaining a flat stomach, lowered diaphram, etc. Spin the energy around your kidney counter clockwise 9 times, then clockwise 9 times. When you need to breath again, inhale more air. Do the same for the right kindney as you had for the left kidney. When you are done, fully relax and use the abdominal breath to stabalize all breathing. In this way you manage to pack a protective layer of chi around your kidneys as well as generally seal and pack vital energy in your body for later use. It is doing these in conjunction with abdominal breathing that you begin to see many physical. emotional, and mental benefits.