Breathing Notes - (2368)

Introduction

This post presents some interesting points to do with the breath.

Notes

Window into our Internal State

Everyone's breath is the perfect indicator of their internal state. That is the quality of their thoughts and emotions.

Our internal state affects the ease and pace of our breathing. Maybe our in-breath is affected more than our out-breath or vice versa. The interesting thing is that there will be a reason why.

After discovering the various breathing patterns while we experience certain internal states, we can know a lot about the internal state of others by observing their breathing.

After we have studied our breath and the connection it has to mind and emotion, an intuitional sense that feels what others are experiencing through their breathing develops. 

The breath to internal state connection does not lie. Even if a person says that they are fine and all ok, yet their breathing is frantic, they are not all ok. 

Of course every ego with the internal states that they create affect our breathing and make us to breathe in a particular way. Every ego has its breath. Anger has its breath, lust has its breath, fear and anxiety both have their typical breathing patterns.

Factors to observe are the depth, frequency and variation in the general breathing pattern.

Our breathing changes significantly more when we are just about to do something. If we are able to notice this change, we can know the internal state in which we or another person are going to do something.

Breathing can be used to positively condition our nervous system.

Breathing is a bridge between our body and our psychology. Working with the breath means we can affect both the body our psychology. If we are unwell psychologically speaking we can help ourselves by changing our breathing. This is a very important skill for ourselves and others. Sometimes that is the only way we can help others.

Relaxation

To be able to relax on command in the most difficult moments of our lives is a tremendous skill that we must give ourselves. If you want to give yourself a gift - give yourself this gift.

Try to breathe into the body. Making our breath to extend to our extremities, that is our fingers and toes. When we do this we bring vitality to the whole body.

The breath can take away pain. Maybe not all the different kinds of pain, but it can certainly soften many bodily pains and discomforts.

Calm and controlled breathing brings you back to homeostasis and allows us to really relax. Deeper and better than watching TV, scrolling on your phone etc. etc.

Long out breaths activate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system which relaxes us.

There are several kinds of breath:

• Ordinary Breath: which is mostly suffering and stress.

• Warm Breath: which is medicine for the body and mind.

• Cold Breath: which produces inertia and laziness.

• Hot Breath: which produces agitation in the body and mind as well as discomfort and itches in the body.

• Supporting Breath: which is cool and stills the body and mind.

• Refined Breath: which extreme high quality, combining warm breath with mindfulness. 

Breathing

Our breath can be made to spread out to every pore of our skin. Our breath must first of all fill the interior of the body and then extend out to every pore.

Feel the breath in your lungs and heart, liver and intestines, rib-cage and spine. It must have an effect all over the body.

This kind of breathing keeps the body healthy and at ease and expands the mind.

Pain

When there is pain, focus on the breath going past the pain. Breathe to make the breath go past the pain to other parts of the body. That is past the sore knee and onwards towards the feet and toes for example.

The breath suppresses pain while mindfulness suppresses the five hindrances to meditation, which are restlessness and worry, laziness, doubt, ill-will and sense desires.

Make the good breath sensations to spread through the body. As these sensations accumulate and fill the body, rapture is produced.

Look after the breath. Cultivate it and care for it. It is a very good friend that will be there to help us in whatever endeavour and occasion of life.

Mind

Our breathing reflects our life situation - we have to listen to it. 

Observing our breath is a very good window of self-knowledge, as it allows us to know ourselves. It is the bridge between body and mind. Observe the body to know the mind.

When we are still, we get knowledge from the body, when the breath is calm we get knowledge from the breath, when our mind is still we get knowledge from the mind. 

Still body, to still breath, to still mind is the process we must work by.

A deep awareness of the body is brought about through the breath.

To increase our mindfulness of our breath and in general, we must evaluate the breath. 

Evaluate the in and out breath. Evaluate the inner sensations of the breath. Look at their intensity of tingling. These are the points by which we can evaluate our breath.

Continue to spread the breath to the entire body, moving through all the parts of the body, the blood vessels, tendons, organs, bones even to every pore of our skin. 

Doing this actually increases communication throughout the whole the body. Thus bringing the body together more in unity with our consciousness.

Evaluation allows us to refine the breath and make it more harmonious, which in turn creates a harmonious state of mind.

End (2368).