Excerpt from "Complete Breathing" by Rich Szabo
Before we can improve our breathing we must remember
that the process existed long before we did - we have nothing to teach it.
What we have to do is to prepare ourselves to receive its revitalizing strength
by removing any obstacles that might hinder its good effects.
Proper breathing depends on our eliminating tension,
correcting bad habits, wrong mental and physical attitudes; the moment we
get rid of these obstacles it will come into its own and bring us vitality
and good health.
The corsets of 1900 are no longer in fashion, but there
is still more than one item of clothing which prevents us from normal breathing
- leather belts for men, girdles and bras for women. These must be as flexible
as possible if they are not to hinder respiration. But the physical obstacles
are even more daunting: the hard tense stomach which encumbers every breath,
imprisoning the personality; the rib-cage as inflexible as a breast-plate;
the diaphragm immobilized by the wind - itself caused by spasms - which has
accumulated in the alimentary canal.
The first step is to relax all these muscles, which
when permanently tense are designed more successfully than any corset to
prevent normal breathing; and this is why relaxation is the open door to
yoga. |
