Breathing - some comments

When I studied Jin Shin Jyutsu back in the 1980´s, the subject came up about the most essential thing one could do for their health. If you can´t place your hands on your body because of paralysis or something, or you don´t have enough time or you have fallen down a cliff and can´t move.... What could one do to maintain balance...?

The answer was.... breath.... it is the most basic healing.

There are many ways to breath. When you start the physical order of Qi Gong letting the body slump, I recommend that you don´t do a nose and mouth alternating type of breathing. The extra movement of opening and closing the mouth goes against letting the body slump. You may actually want your jaw to slump too.

But there are other ways to breath. I remember when I was working in an adult foster care home. There was a man there, Bill. He was 99 and vital. He would breath heavily all day long. He would do a sort of powerful fire breath, where he would inhale forcefully a lot of air, and then exhale forcefully through constrained lips. He was forcing a lot of oxygen into his lungs. He would sit and breath like this all day long. I always thought that his longevity was due to his breathing. One day his sister died, and he decided to go too. So he laid in his bed and stopped eating, drinking and fire-breathing. He died a little over a week later.

If you want to know how to breath naturally, observe a horse or dog. They are not in their heads about what is the best way to breath, they breath naturally. And watch them in different situations, when they run, when they sleep, when they eat, when they are being bathed or petted, when they are walking, when they are resting. Also pay attention to the vitality of the animal. If the breathing is good, the animal will have more vitality. If the breathing is poor, less vitality.