How to Breathe

Then there is a deep breath, in which you inhale deep into your torso, filling your lungs to the bottom. Some people call this a belly breath, since filling the bottom of your lungs presses down your diapragm, pushing out your belly. A deep breath is better than a shallow one, but there is a more complete way to breathe, called a full breath. As human beings, we're very frontally oriented. Eyes, nose, and mouth are all in the front of our face, and even our ears have their opening toward the front.The natural bend in our elbows moves our hands forward for feeling. Most of us have more awareness ot our front than our back, and little feeling for the thickness of our torso.

To experience a full breath, sit up or stand with good posture and close your eyes. Breathe gently and slowly through your nose. Feel the breath going down the back of your throat. On the next few breaths, feel as if your breath were going into your back, filling it first side to side and then down to your tailbone. You can imagine that your back is like a thin, inflatable camping pad, fiiling with breath to an even thickness across your whole back. As you breathe gently this way, you'll feel your shoulder blades widen a bit and the back of your rib cage spread wider. Finally, your back will seem to get longer as you feel as though the breath is reaching down to your tailbone. This feeling is excellent for your golf (boomerang) stance, as the widening of your back lets your arms hang more freely, and the lengthening feeling means your back is straighter.

Practice this way of breathing as often as you can, in any setting. Soon it will become your natural way of breathing. Making full use of your lungs is a tremendous benefit. You are providing the maximum amount of oxygen to your blood and through it to your muscles and brain. You'll not only be breathing fuller, you'll be breathing smarter.
( Blue rang Volker Behrens )