Help!Calling Breath Professor JoeBlast

[vallavar]

I have reread all your posts including the breath mechanics post and i have been busy joining the bit and pieces of what you have explained in term of simple to under stand way.

Let me jot down what i have understood till know.

 

Initially use the nostrils to assist the start of breath from the psoas/T12 junction.Imagining breath starting from T12/crura and end at sacrum and exhale return.After rote repetion,try without using the nostrils.

 

My questions:

 

1)What do u mean by the "Forward and upward" motion of diaphram.?

Do u mean that when we intitiate the breath at the crura/psoas junction,the rear end of diaphragm expand upwards first and then we apply a small effort in pushing it down with help of psoas.

Is their any tangible feeling of the psoas moving downwards??

2) Show we feel expansion on inhale near the anus/sacrum area or only near the perineum.

3)Is their a feeling of cool air passing through the nostrils when inhaling after mastering the psoas/diaphragm motion or you dont have any movement through the nostrils??

 

 

[joeblast]

had to lol at the thread title

 

1-I think some people have misunderstood the wavelike propagation analogy; the motion of diaphragm/psoas is sorta like reeling in a large sheet from the wind in a way. Motion begins from the crura and the descending motion continues for the duration of the inhale. There is no upward movement of the diaphragm on inhale. Say we divided the diaphragm into 10 vertical parts, with 1 at the bottom. Begin with 1. Then 1 & 2. Then 1, 2, 3. Then 1, 2, 3, 4. Make sense? It is also relatively difficult to discern the psoas at first but with a lot of practice you should eventually be able to differentiate all of these from one another, even bottom group of perineum vs prostate vs bulbospongiosus vs anus. But yes after a while you should be able to feel the movement of the psoas, it will just likely feel like its all the same between that and the diaphragm. But the psoas is really "what makes the breath go deep" as in "all the way to dantien level."

 

2-I dont think expansion is necessarily a good term to use there. The motions should be gentle and they do not have a large range. So it is more relax, then a gentle lift.

 

3- After 'mastering'..? After mastering you should be able to have the flow of air fine as a thread, yet deep. Long, soft, slow, calm, measured. It is Ananpana where the real beginnings of neurological attenuation take place. The focused awareness as in feeeeeling every bit of that which you are doing (any meditative exercise is an exercise in awareness) is an important part of the process also, because it more thoroughly manifests the habit-energy of meditative mindset and smoothness of body mechanics. The programming of a more efficient protocol onto the body systems is actually altering the instruction set of the medulla for breathing, so when one is in good practice, the wheel keeps turning without the wheel being turned. Without all that extra stimulation of the cranial nerves, there's a lot of additional energy there that becomes freely available, or even better, "unmanifested."

 

Bottom line there though, is if you can feel air moving through your nostrils and sinuses, then that is also neural stimulation; olfactory nerve's 40 cps excitatory signal shakes back to the midbrain, and with all the logical loops and what not in the wiring there, any wonder one pops off tons of random thought? So right from a neurological level there, that is how sustained practice will manifest a calm relatively chatter free mind.

 

[vallavar]

So intially what should i do to get going?

I am planning to add the breath mechanics in my kong jing standing practice.

Any Psoas stretches prior to the practice beneficial?

Where should i keep my awareness during the whole practice? At Dantian? or like u mentioned from crura to sacrum and back.Should i feel the expansion on the sides and at lower back on the descend.

Whats your take on Ujjayi Breath and its activation of the vagus nerves triggering a relaxing response.?

I think i saw on your thread that you relate the vagus to the elevated heartbeats and turning on the SNS.

Edited April 9, 2014 by vallavar

[joeblast]

You're already going Work on the timing of things. You'll have to discern for yourself what amounts of focusing on this or that (e.g. if you have a certain structure you want to more closely analyze, or if you are focusing on smoothness in general, or if you are just being mindful of the awareness itself...) will be most beneficial - sure in theory one can just focus on a certain thing but that is a little too static, life dont quite work that way.

I will usually start a session by taking~5 minutes to simply correct posture and relax, smile. Just that one idea to relax at the beginning of a session is important. Once settled then I will spend some time on aspects of breath protocol, timing and such. I dont normally prescribe myself a certain amount of time to do this, I let my sessions be relatively spontaneous unless there's a certain stronger practice or two, then I will align the session around that instead, but most everyday mundane-ish sessions I let them be more relaxed. And then always end a session with the same deep relaxed stillness.

 

I honestly dont do a ton of psoas stretches.

 

Where to keep awareness...well...if you keep your awareness at the dantien, then your practice will manifest a little differently than if you keep your awareness at the niwan. Both have their fruits and advantages, but I would suggest that for the time being while really working on breath mechanics, saturate your awareness into every movement, your awareness is all of that movement of breath mechanics. That will help deeply ingrain the movement into muscle memory. Once you start getting to the point where you can keep the feeling of flow of air almost nonexistent on an ongoing basis in your practice, then primarily put the awareness at the dantien and continue training that for a while. You should be able to reach a state of deep serenity with the awareness there...relatively important imho to put the time in doing it and gaining the technique as a veritable tool attached to one's belt. Once that tool has its own habit-energy-inertia, then spending time working with the awareness placed at the niwan will combine, further, and accelerate the foundation built from the time spent on the lower.

[vallavar]

Whats the amount of physical effort required in pulling the trio of diaphragm, psoas and quadratus lumborum downwards initially or is the descend manifested mainly through one's YI(intent) .I just tried your trick of assuming a train on the spine and move it between T12 and sacrum and it just lengthens the inhale So i assume its a combination of both intent and small physical effort starting at the crura on the inhale that deepens/lengthens the breath.

Edited April 9, 2014 by vallavar

[liminal_luke]

I'm no professor, but thought I'd chime in with my experience. For awhile I preceeded a breathing practice with some self chi nei tsang...making small circles with my finger fixed at different points around my navel. It's a technique described in the book Unwinding the Belly and referred to in chi nei tsang as Opening the Wind Gates.

 

Anyway, I mention this because afterwards I noticed my breath was much softer, everything more relaxed.

 

My two cents.

 

Liminal

[joeblast]

Whats the amount of physical effort required in pulling the trio of diaphragm, psoas and quadratus lumborum downwards initially or is the descend manifested mainly through one's YI(intent) .I just tried your trick of assuming a train on the spine and move it between T12 and sacrum and it just lengthens the inhale So i assume its a combination of both intent and small physical effort starting at the crura on the inhale that deepens/lengthens the breath.

It is an intermingling of the descent at the general location, the reason for both crura and psoas. its like putting your hand on a table and only picking up the ring finger, differentiating those movements. with familiarity comes granularity in accessible movement; dexterity.

 

yup, lengthen them. you can only deepen at such and such a rate before your body feeds back and thwarts the effort.

 

ql is relatively small, but consider the embryonic breathing methods from yang jwing ming and the deep belly breathing as bk frantzis teaches and my familiarity with anatomical structures as the bridge. either way it is all about correct timing and training that, for when the timing is correct the constructive amplification of wave potentials only increases further and further as all of these myriad efficiency gains are realized.

 

time for analysis, time for performing practice. analysis is not for when you're in the middle of practice. think about it in a time for contemplation, and carry those contemplations forth into practice.

 

 

 

with regard to the upward-ness you initially mentioned. I somewhat regret ever mentioning it, because it was just a musing and the concept was inverse to what the physical is. its one of those things that comes across in person when I've explained it but online text has proved rather lacking. /\