Aikido Inspiration: Breathing

Tonight, I was meditating.  And, as often happens, it inspired me.

I'd like to share what Aikido has taught me about breathing, and how a healing breath is a) easy for anyone to fit into their life and b) incredibly beneficial.

This is the Aikido breath: sit with a straight spine.  Align your body so that you need to do very little to maintain your posture. Breath in though your nose and out through your mouth. See how lengthy and free from tension your breath can become.

Then, endless variety.  You can sit in a kneeling posture, or with crossed legs, or not at all-stand or lie down instead.  What is the shape of your breath?  Is it a rectangular breath that is very even throughout?  A triangular breath that starts big and tapers off, or does the reverse?  Do you pause between breathing out and breathing in, spend some time empty of air? Different things are likely to feel right on different occasions.

I generally sit in seiza (the Japanese word for kneeling).  I breath in and out without a pause. My exhale is generally longer than my inhale.  And this is the crux of why I find breathing practice so valuable: as I breath, I become aware of the tension in my throat, my neck, my chest.  (Those are my most common storage places, but not my only ones.  Yours may be different.)

That tension shows up in my awareness as a painful spot.  Not as physical pain, or at least not primarily, but as the memory of stress or grief.  When I-when most domesticated humans-experience stress or pain, we don't really fully experience it.  We tend to push it aside, as if negative emotions were experiences we just don't have time for at the moment.  But when these emotions are represses, they don't dissipate.  They stay in our body until we make time for them.

Breathing in, breathing out.  The first level of tension becomes apparent to me.  I feel it, rest within it, accept it for what it is.  It is here.  It is real.

Once acknowledged, it loosens.  This loosening is one of the things that makes me so in love with breathing.  This solves tension headaches.  It can ease back pain.  Done in the morning, it fills your day with energy.  Done in the evening laying down, it's the best cure for sleeplessness I know.  It gives heartfelt, inspired solutions to dilemmas and provides a wellspring of inspiration.  All of this, from simply listening to your own body, your own being.

Breathing is necessary for life.  Breathing with awareness is a great source of powerful life energy!