Thanks Carl, great info!
Where's that Super-Like button again?
[Emoji6]
I think we need to get Dan to recognize your contribution to the forum when you created the Super-Like button. [emoji2]
The subject of the breath is one I clearly love. Breathing patterns and movement patterns are both often talked about and thought about in a way that is counterproductive.
Here is a story to illustrate the point. About 15 years ago I was studying movement with this great teacher. He was always trying to teach about movement patterns and how, if you get your mind to understand the quality of movement and the goal of the particular movement, how the limbs should move in space, the movement pattern would automatically start to improve.
But, often, how people try to look at movement is to try and analyze what muscles contract to create a movement. And this is a very flawed way of thinking about improving a movement skill. Even if, in working with weights in a gym it is okay to isolate and work specific muscles. That is different.
So, in this one particular class there was this student who kept asking questions. And really, they were the same question over and over. The question was simply asked about different movements. "What muscles work to create this movement?" Finally after the 5th or 6th time of him giving an answer he got frustrated. That original answers made it clear to everyone else in the room that, based on how we were looking at movement, this line of inquiry was flawed. And when he got frustrated he said:
"Do you see this movement?"
And he stood up from his seat and sat back down again. And he repeated the question for emphasis. And then he stood up and sat back down again. And then he said:
"It takes over 180 muscles working in a complex sequence and timing, for me to make that movement. If I had to think about what muscles I used, I would never be able to get up. If that was the case, our ancestors would never have been able to run away from predators and we would have become extinct long ago. For learning these movement patterns and getting them into your body, what you are asking is beside the point."
In yoga, often different kinds of breathing patterns are used and explored. It is actually a unique scenario. In yoga, in both the postures and the movements, and also in the breathing techniques, you are slowing things down so you can play with, change and manipulate different aspects of postural alignment, movement or breathing.
Since we are on the subject of the breath, I will use examples of breath techniques.
1) There are some techniques where you breath in a way so that your abdomen expands.
2 Other techniques where you focus on expanding your chest.
3 Techniques where you expand your abdomen, then ribs, then chest.
4 Other techniques where you expand your chest, then your rib-cage then your abdomen.
5 Ones where you try and expand everything at the same time.
6 Ones where you try and expand areas of the back of the body.
And the list goes on. And often people assume, like in the website that has the article about breathing for TT, that one of those techniques is better than the others. But properly understood, the techniques are for freeing your breath so it can do what it needs to in various situations.
It is good to learn how to breathe in different ways and it is healthy and worthwhile practicing various breathing techniques, at least for those who have the time and the patience. But in real life activities, you should not try and do those kinds of things to the breath. The body does already know how to breath. And breathing, is a lot like that statement from that movement teacher:
If you try to control the breath too consciously in a real life activity, you can do more harm than good. If you focus on the quality of the breath, that can be helpful. But you should not use an idea about breathing to get in the way of the breathing process.
And I can't tell you how many foolish yoga teachers who thought they were learning the "correct" way to breathe because they were taught some foolish system that made them think there was a "correct" way to breathe. And they tried to apply that to something like running to their own detriment.
Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy
