Breathing: Foundation Techniques

1. Natural breath observation

Lie down in the pose of relaxation. Close your eyes or gaze softly at the ceiling. Place one hand on
the abdomen and one on your chest.

Become aware of your breathing. Without changing anything, just observe the natural breath.

Focus on the depth of your breath. Does it feel deep or shallow? Does it seem stronger in the
abdomen or in the chest? Continue this awareness for a few breaths. Notice if there is any change
from breath to breath. Make a mental note of what you have observed.

Now become aware of the way your breath flows. Does it seem smooth and even? Or irregular,
uneven? Do you notice any internal tension blocking or limiting your breath? Any feeling of
resistance to breathing? Continue this observation for a few breaths.

Now observe the duration of your in and out breaths. Start counting how long it takes to breathe
in and how long it takes to breathe out. Count the in and out breaths separately. For example, it
might take 3 seconds to breathe in and 2 seconds to breathe out. Does the length change from
breath to breath or is it stable? Do you ever need to take an extra big breath, or sigh? Continue
this observation for several breaths. Make a mental note of what you have observed.

Now let go of the breath observation. Simply feel your natural breath entering and leaving the
body.

Remain aware of the natural breath and start counting the breaths backwards from 11 to 1.
Counting mentally, “breathing in 11, breathing out 11, breathing in 10, breathing out 10” and so
on until you reach 0. If you lose count, start again.

When you finish counting the breaths, take your awareness to the physical body. Mentally scan
the whole body. Feel the contact between the body and the floor, the air on your skin. Then begin
to make small movements, first with the toes, then the fingers, gently turn the head from side to
side. Stretch the whole body, then roll over to one side and come up into sitting.

2. Three parts of the breath

Abdominal breath
Lie down on your back in the pose of relaxation and relax the whole body. Close the eyes or gaze
softly at the ceiling. Place the right hand on the abdomen just above the navel and the left hand
over the center of the chest.

Become aware of your breathing. Take your awareness to the natural movement of your abdomen
as you breathe in and out. The right hand will move up with inhalation and down with exhalation.

Try not to expand the chest or move the shoulders. The left hand should not move with the
breath.

Feel the abdomen expanding and contracting. Continue breathing slowly and deeply.
Next time you breathe try to expand the abdomen as much as you can. Feel it expand like a
balloon being blown up. With the exhalation, empty the balloon.

Practice for 5 minutes before returning to natural breathing.

Note: Abdominal breathing is the most natural and efficient way to breathe. However, due to
tension, poor posture, restrictive clothing and lack of training, it is often forgotten. Once this
technique again becomes a part of daily life and correct breathing is restored, there will be a great
improvement in the state of physical and mental wellbeing.

Thoracic breath
Maintain awareness of the natural breath, concentrating now on the sides of the chest.
Discontinue any further use of the diaphragm and begin to inhale by slowly expanding the ribcage.
Expand the chest as much as possible. Exhale by relaxing the chest muscles.

Breathe slowly and deeply through the chest with total awareness. Practice for a few minutes
before returning to natural breathing.

Note: With thoracic breath you exaggerate the breathing in the chest and upper chest. It is part of
preparing to learn full yogic breathing. It is not recommended that you breathe like this at other
times.

Clavicular breath
Perform thoracic breathing for a few minutes. Inhale, fully expanding the ribcage. When the ribs
are fully expanded, inhale a little more until expansion is felt in the upper portion of the lungs
around the base of the neck. The shoulders and collar bone should also move up slightly. Exhale
slowly.

Continue for a few more breaths, then relax any effort and watch the natural breath.

Note: Clavicular breathing is the final stage of total ribcage expansion. It occurs after thoracic
breathing has been completed, and its purpose is to absorb a little more air into the lungs. In daily
life, clavicular breathing is only used under conditions of extreme physical exertion.

3. Complete breath

Lie down on your back in the pose of relaxation and relax the whole body. Close the eyes or gaze
softly at the ceiling. Place the right hand on the abdomen just above the navel and the left hand
over the center of the chest.

Become aware of your breathing and observe it for a few rounds of breath.

Now start an active abdominal breath, slowly filling up the lower lungs. Continue breathing up into
the chest and fill up the top of the lungs. The whole inhalation is one smooth, continuous
movement.

Then start to exhale by emptying out the top of the lungs and then emptying out the abdomen.
The movement of the exhalation is continuous.

Continue in this way, ensuring that the body is relaxed. At first perform 5 to 10 rounds. Slowly
increase to 5 minutes before returning to natural breathing.