womens breathing

[jee]

Hi all, just wanted to ask that is the method of breathing the same with women as with men?

With men, I assume its enlarging the midsection from all sides like in the picture(don't remember where I saved it from)

 

what do you think?

[SonOfTheGods]

Hi all, just wanted to ask that is the method of breathing the same with women as with men?

With men, I assume its enlarging the midsection from all sides like in the picture(don't remember where I saved it from)

 

what do you think?

 

Your post is 24 hours old and no one answered.

 

I'm not a female, but I will take a crack at it

 

I imagine this is an internal alchemy question?

 

During cultivation, clean air, a deliberate slow but not forceful inahle

 

Slowly Sinking the breathe on exhale

 

Eventually minimizing the breathe to almost none, quite and peaceful

[Bearded Dragon]

It's the same

[jee]

I wasn't thinking cultivation only but about breathing all the time. Thanks for the input sonofthegods and bearded dragon.

[doc benway]

Yes - the same for men and women.

When you get into working with intention (yi guiding qi) and visualization (channels) linked to breathing, there may be differences in both Daoist and Buddhist methods between men and women. I don't have any experience with yogic or other methods.

 

There are 3 basic groups of respiratory muscles -

1. the abdominal/pelvic group - this is what you diagram above and this is responsible for the majority of the work of breathing

2. the thoracic group (primarily intercostals) - this is secondary and naturally engages to add additional lung capacity by increasing thoracic volume

3. the neck/shoulder  group - contributes the least but can add a bit additional capacity and vacuum; these muscles are used more in pathological situations like an asthma attack, for example

 

Breathing is a unique process. Unlike most physiological processes that occur without any conscious effort or awareness (beating the heart, digestion, endocrine function), breathing is an unconscious process with a built in conscious over-ride.

 

While I advocate "learning" to breathe properly, I suspect that what we are really doing is unlearning maladaptive patterns related to stress and our disconnection from nature. It's my position that there is no more effective method of breathing than that which occurs without any cognitive interference, such as in deep sleep. We can return to this natural state of breathing throughout our daily lives with mindfulness and eventually it becomes effortless and needs no attention.

 

When the masters refer to the breathing lessening and becoming minimal, I believe that this is what is being pointed to as opposed to an actual lessening of respiratory function. The breath becomes long and subtle but not shallow. More like movement occurring in stillness than lessening of movement, if that makes any sense.