Lesson 1
Introduction And Preparation
This short lesson explains why paying attention to one’s breath is so important. It motivates us to improve our life using these simple breathing exercises. It also tells us how to prepare for the breath work, how to sit, and how not to sit.
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Lesson 2
Body And Breath Awareness
Learn how to begin to pay attention to how you breathe. Becoming aware of your breath within your body is the first step to optimal breathing. Take a break or pause from your constant activity. Slow down!
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Lesson 3
The Invocation Breath
Though not explicitly called 'the Invocation Breath' in this lesson, the exercise is referred to by some yogic practices by this name. Many spiritual practices have a version of the Invocation Breath. Sit in a chair. Lean forward, elbows on knees. Support your chin with your open hands. Once you can do this exercise as explained in the lesson, add your own 'invocation'. What is your essence? What do you value most?
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Lesson 4
Shoulder Rotation With The Breath
Optimal breathing implies breathing with one's entire body and mind. It is important to pay attention to, as well as 'warm up' parts of the body that particularly contribute to the act of breathing. The shoulders are as much a part of breathing as the lungs are.
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Lesson 5
Breathe While Twisting The Body
This is another 'warm up' breathing exercise. Twisting the body and spine is extremely beneficial. Doing so while actively paying attention to and controlling ones breath takes this simple exercise to another level.
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Lesson 6
Raise The Arms - Hold - Pound The Chest
Though there are almost an infinite number of breathing warm ups, this is the final 'warming up while breathing' exercise in this course. Always remember, the more you warm up your body and your breath, the more aware you become. Breath awareness is the goal!
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Lesson 7
Blow Out Everything
This rather strenuous exercise helps us exhale as much air as possible. It's Spring Cleaning Time for our lungs! In addition to exchanging old, stale air with fresh air, this exercise does wonders to strengthen our exhalation muscles. Sit down for this one, and lean forward.
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Lesson 8
Thoughts On Our Breath
After the very demanding 'Blow out everything' exercise, you need to pause. While giving yourself a break, I remind you in this lesson why breath awareness is so important to our wellbeing and why these specific exercises work so well.
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Lesson 9
Deep Panting Breath
Try to inhale and exhale as much as possible. Sit up to inhale, lean forward and exhale with your entire body! Speed isn't as important as the volume of air you can get into and out of your body. This exercise uses all of your lungs and works all of your inhalation and your exhalation muscles. You should feel dizzy afterwards, because if you do this exercise correctly, you will be hyperventilating, if only briefly.
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Lesson 10
Shallow Panting Breath
As the name implies, this is exactly opposite to the previous exercise. No strength needed, just control. And the faster, the better. Relax! This can be done seated or standing, or even walking around. It is almost as effective as that marvellous medicine, laughter in changing immediately one's negative emotion into a positive one. The more you relax, the faster you can pant.
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Lesson 11
The Gentle Breath
The Gentle Breath works on our exhalation. As with all breathing exercises that slow down our outward breath, the Gentle Breath calms us without us trying to do so or even thinking about it. When we are completely absorbed in feeling the air stream move gently through our lips, all is well!
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Lesson 12
The Sizzle or 'C' Breath
This exercise is like the Gentle Breath with the added component of sound. It is also more demanding. The Sizzle Breath, when we try to prolong our exhalation with each repetition, allows us to become aware of our self-imposed and therefore non-existent limitations. We focus on the sound we make by 'sizzling' through our teeth and intuitively better control both our inhalation and our exhalation muscles.
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Lesson 13
The Vigorous Breath
This exercise is definitely a strengthening one. It's an inhalation and exhalation like we did with the Deep Panting Breath, except only one. Take a huge breath and then lean forward while exhaling with your whole being. The more effort, the better. Pretend it's your birthday and you have a cake covered in candles that need blowing out. ...and that you are a very healthy 100 year old! :-)
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Lesson 14
Strong Exhalation with Pumping
The last lesson involved sustained effort. This exercise increases that effort. It is like HIT (high intensity training) for the exhalation muscles. It is similar to the 'blow out everything' exercise in Lesson 7, but with the added element of pumping. This sort of training has been shown to strengthen dramatically the muscles being used.
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Lesson 15
Held Breath on the Inhalation.
This and the next lesson are focused on the 'pauses' in between the inhalation and exhalation. Holding one's breath on the inhalation without using your epiglottis (the valve in your throat) increases your strength and awareness of your inhalation muscles. This exercise also helps to stretch the muscles, tendons, and fascia around the lungs, making inhalations easier and marginally larger.
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Lesson 16
Held Breath on Exhalation
This is one of the relatively rare times when the expression, 'no pain, no gain' is true, up to a point. Holding one's breath on the exhalation can be a virtually intolerable, psychological battle between your conscious will power and your unconscious and ultimately uncontrollable urge to breathe. However counterintuitive it may sound, doing this exercise has major health benefits. For example, it helps opens up one's bronchial and nasal passages. One can also benefit psychologically, especially in reducing the severity of panic attacks.
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Lesson 17
Sustained Held Breath on the Exhalation
This exercise is not as much about finding the limits of your ability to endure the intolerable, and more about the limit of your patience, by toying around with the sensation of discomfort over several minutes. The objective is to empty your lungs and then breath in and out as infrequently and as shallow as possible. This exercise both strengthens your breathing muscles and increases your control of them. It also increases your endurance threshold.
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Lesson 18
The Silk Thread Breath
This exercise requires creative visual imagination. Physically, it should feel pleasantly relaxing. Four parts: 1) lean back 'imperceptibly' while inhaling through your nose (and all the way down to your feet); 2) imagine a sunrise on the pause after the inhalation; 3) lean forward 'imperceptibly' while feeling and 'seeing' the 'silk thread' of your exhalation; and 4) imagine a sunset on the pause after the exhalation.
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Lesson 19
The Complete Breath
The Complete Breath is one of the most universally taught and practiced breath. It is simply controlling all four parts of the breath (inhale, pause, exhale, pause) by giving each part an arbitrary number of 'beats'. Recently, a variation of this breath has become very popular. Called the Box Breath, each part is given the same number of beats. I've never found that to be as effective (whatever that means) or feel as natural as making the inhalation short, the exhalation long and the two pauses about equal. Try things for yourself. Experiment!
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Lesson 20
Watching The Breath
Watch your breath while doing 'seated meditation'. Count the inhalations, or the exhalations. Or don't count anything, DO NOT control your breath. If your inhalations, exhalations and pauses are always exactly the same, you are controlling your breath. Very long pauses after the exhalations are common. Yawn or sigh if you feel like it. The paradox is that once you watch your breath, you can't help but control it, but that's another story. For now, just try to relax and focus on, but try not to control your breath. Sighs and yawns are almost mandatory! This exercise should be done without listening to this lesson.
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Lesson 21
The Listening Breath
This lesson involves listening. You don't have access to the original video in this Insight Timer course. This is a good thing. It makes you listen more carefully, or to put it in a Zen Buddhist way, it makes you "see with your ears". Listen and try to imagine that you are playing the music with me. There is no failing here, unless you don't even try. Concentrated awareness!
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Lesson 22
Conclusion To Breathe! Course
Congratulations. You have completed the course. The breathing exercises in this course benefit you mentally and physically. They do so immediately, even if you only do them once. But for lasting results and for deeper changes or improvement, you have to make them part of your "Practice", a part of the things that you do everyday in order to make you the best 'you', however you define that to be. The best breathing exercises are the ones that you do.
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