Breathing with Purpose to Regulate Your State of Being

There are two kinds of breaths: the Yin and the Yang

But first, some science. The lung is a large organ with five lobes. It is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, so there are more lung cells (alveoli) at the bottom. Breathing is not only about bringing air in; it’s the process of oxygenating the blood and getting rid of carbon dioxide and toxins – the body alchemy of qi and blood, of lung and heart, of metal and fire.

Chest breathing is shallow; it only reaches the upper part of the lung. Not enough oxygen is brought in, and the heart immediately works harder to compensate. The result is palpitation and shortness of breath, a sensation that provokes panic and anxiety. On the other hand, breathing into the abdomen captures a full breath, both the lung and the heart are relaxed, and body and brain cells are well-nourished, giving rise to a feeling of comfort and well being.

In both the Yin and Yang breaths, we use abdominal breathing.

Abdominal Breathing

In abdominal breathing, direct the breath to the lower abdomen, the part between the navel and the top of the pubic bone. In Daoist practice, this is called the Dantian, the field where the elixir is cultivated.

Place your consciousness there, watching the rising and falling of the abdomen with the breath, aware of its warmth and light. It also means that you withdraw your mind from your brain with all its endless clingings and chatterings. The energy is pulled down to the Dantian.

The rising, the falling, the light, the warmth. Ever-watchful, but no conscious thoughts. Now, breathe like this nine times. How do you feel?

The Yin Breath

The abdomen is completely relaxed in the Yin Breath. Let the body do the breathing. The mind only watches.

Breathing in, the abdomen rises and expands. Breathing out, the abdomen gently retracts. Place your consciousness in the Dantian and watch it slowly expand and contract like bellows. Bring your awareness to the diaphragm. Feel it contract and push downward with the in-breath. Feel it relax and rise up with the out-breath. We are usually not conscious of the diaphragm muscle but, with some attention and practice, we can feel how this muscle works.

The Yin breath focuses on watching, on not-doing. It is a relaxing breath that calms the racing mind and soothes anxiety. It is the breath to use to gain grounding, anchor, and balance. Now, breathe like this nine times. How do you feel?

The Yang Breath

In the Yang breath, the Dantian is charged with intention. When breathing in, the abdominal muscles are also pulled in and back toward the spine. By compacting the space while air is drawn in, the Qi is concentrated. When breathing out, the lower abdomen slowly relaxes and expands.

In the Yang breath, there is as much doing as watching, but the doing is gentle, natural, and not forced. The doing has more to do with intention than a physical act. Try to find that balance. If you feel strained, you are doing too much.

The Yang breath is an energizing breath. It is most suitable to use when you feel tired, listless, or depressed. Now, breathe like this nine times. How do you feel?

A Dream

When you awaken from a dream and return to your familiar experience of space, time, and identity, it’s easy to differentiate and say, “it was just a dream.”

Here is Zhuangzi’s Butterfly dream:

“Once Zhuang Zhou (Zhuangzi) dreamt that he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solidly and unmistakably Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the “transformation of things.” (Zhuangzi, ch. 2; trans. Watson)

Dream and wake are different psychic states. Even though dreams may be vivid and gripping when we are dreaming, they are unreal when reviewed from the wake state. Dreams are not subject to the dependable constraints of space, time, identity, and gravity that we experience in the wake state. So it’s easy, when we awake, to say, “It’s not real, it was just a dream.”

On the other hand, “reality” is clear as daylight because we experience it repeatedly. We believe that it just “is.” That tomorrow when we wake up, we will still be the same person and that the world and other people as we know them will still be very much the same. 

We hold on to this belief tenaciously. Maybe we have a need to. But it is obvious that every person’s reality is not the same. In fact, they may be drastically different. So, is our individual sense of reality simply a psychic state we insist on perpetuating? In psychological terms, this is called a trance. Is our sense of reality a deep trance we enter into and reinforce everyday?

In Jorge Luis Borges’ story “The Circular Ruins,” a man arrives at the ancient ruins to dedicate himself to dreaming another human being into existence. After years of effort, his creation comes to life: a being unaware of his origin. A fire approaches the ruins. The man, his dream fulfilled, walks into it but finds himself unburned. The man now realizes that he himself is the dream of another man. Maybe himself.

The Song & the Dance of Eight Section Brocade Qigong

The eight movements of the Ba Duan Jin are famously captured in a song with eight rhyming lines, each succinctly describing the movement and its benefits.

When Song Dynasty writers first talked about Ba Duan Jin (1150’s) they already included verses but they never gave the routine a name. (Read about the evolution and tributaries of the Ba Duan Jin form). It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that a text (1890) presented the movements with illustrations, accompanied by the song, and named them the Ba Duan Jin. One century later, in 1989, another author rewrote the song, changing few words but transposed the sixth and eighth lines and hence the order of the movements and there we have version we practice today.

The rhyming lyrics of the song are a great mnemonic device but help little if one doesn’t speak Chinese. Here I will present the original illustrations with a breakdown of the meaning of the lines. These are just snapshots but it’s good to get acquainted with them. Then when you come to class you can let your body learn the movements. Afterwards you can go back to these notes and they will make a lot more sense.

Notice that there are eight different ordered movements addressing all the organs: San Jiao (Triple Heater), Lungs, Spleen, Heart, Kidneys & Liver.

The Action part includes many Chinese medical terms. The organ names are capitalized because they have physiological, psychological and spiritual meanings far beyond their commonly known organic functions. We will talk more about them in class.