BREATHING PRACTICES
Working with the breath, we can increase our ability to handle more positive energy. Many people create negativity when they feel good, simply because feeling good is so unfamiliar. Being happy, organically high and successful is unfamiliar territory. When we stray into it, we often bring ourselves back into the familiar world of suffering and restriction.
Physiologically, breath can be used to retrain the nervous system so that it can tolerate a higher charge.
Emotionally, conscious breath practice allows us to encounter and release the limits we all have to how good we can feel, which may arise as shame, traumatic memories, fear, anxiety or anger. We can feel into and clear out barriers to self-love and to giving and receiving love from others.
Mentally, we can learn to encounter and breathe through the pleasure-inhibiting effects of early-life teachings, sticky stereotypes, self-judgment and limiting beliefs.
Spiritually, we can learn to explore and embrace a capacity for inspiration with each breath. Below find a number of intentional breathing techniques, that you can use at the beginning, during or after your Orgasmic Yoga practice.
1. THE HEART BREATH
Practice for five to ten minutes. If you never learn or practice any other kind of breathing, you could have a perfectly lovely time with this one alone. You can take in a lot of air with a minimum amount of effort and tension. It’s a great all-around breath for erotic purposes.
2. SNIFF SNIFF BLOW
Practice for 2-4 minutes. A very simple way to increase and draw energy up the spine. Use whenever you want to distribute your sexual energy upwards and add a little squeeze of the perenium (pelvic floor muscle) on the inhale to increase the effect. 1. Take two sniffs through your nose 2. Exhale through the mouth. Repeat the pattern.
3. BREATH OF FIRE
BREATH OF FIRE Practice for no longer than one to two minutes. The Breath of Fire is a Kundalini yoga practice. It is a powerfully energizing breath that gets the little neurons in your brain humming as it clears your lungs and cleanses your blood. This rapid, continuous breath is done entirely through the nose. It can be done in any position, but it’s best learned standing or sitting up with a straight spine the emphasis of this breath is on the exhale.
Exhale. As you exhale, push the air out by rapidly pulling your navel up to your spine.
To inhale, simply release your navel outward. The breath fills your lungs automatically.
Put your hand on your diaphragm to focus your attention there and to feel the power of this breath.
Begin with one breath every two seconds; work up to one or two breaths per second.
We use the Breath of Fire whenever I want to build energy. It also wakes me up and brings my attention back if I’ve started to space out. A couple of minutes of this breath is also a great substitute for the caffeine and sugar we start to crave at around 4 p.m.
4. TWENTY CONNECTED BREATHS
A very simple and efficient breathing technique to centre yourself when feeling emotionally unstable. There are two ways to do this: One is to simply just take 20 circular breaths that have no pause between inhale and exhale, slow and deep. The second version consists of four five-breath intervals. 4 shorter inhale and exhales through the nose followed by one long and deep breath cycle. Repeat for five times and then simply rest for a moment with the sensations and feelings in your body.
5. ORGASMIC CIRCULAR BREATH WITH FIRE
Practice this for five to ten minutes. The essence of the Circular Breath is breathing in a continuous flow, with no break or pause between the inhale and the exhale. You can do this breath sitting, standing, or lying down.
Breathe gently through your mouth, keeping your jaw relaxed and your lips slightly parted.
Feel the back of your throat open and relax. Do not force or push the breath. The inhale will require a bit more effort than the exhale, which should just gently fall out.
Imagine you breathe making a complete unbroken circle.
This breath is particularly useful for circulating erotic energy around your own body and between yourself and your partner. It builds and moves energy, and it intensifies feelings – both emotional and physical. Some variations on the Circular Breath include breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth while visualizing an unbroken figure eight instead of a circle. Also, by adding sounds on the out breath. The sound A, E, I, O, U.
What we feel we heal. What we resist, persists!
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This post was previously published on DaraandSimon.com and is republished here with permission from author.
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Photo credit: Dara and Simon