KISS

If therapy is to be effective with rage and violence, you had better be able to call upon it and put it into practice instantly when you are headed for trouble. Many psychotherapies and self-help systems are logical and seem like they should be effective. But when you are about to erupt and become violent, you need something that works in an instant. 

Public Domain Image

Lots can be packed away under the hood, but therapy needs to pass Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS) in terms of a basic understanding and instant applicability. I cannot call upon REBT in an instant at these volatile times. REBT is an ongoing long-term project that gradually builds in effectiveness and power. I need an arsenal of weapons. I take medications and do Ki Breathing Meditation as part of an ongoing day to day routine.

I detest violence. I dislike being around hot heads. After I erupt I want to crawl under a rock. I feel I have no right to exist. Surely, I don’t want to be this way. My frontal cortex shuts down and subcortical regions take reign. I am not able to rationally decide not to react violently. 

Years back I could not convince a spouse-abuse counselor this was so. Had I murdered someone in this distressed state, I would not be around to tell this story. Back then there were no selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI).

Though a black belt in aikido, I no longer practice the martial art I studied in Japan, but incorporate Ki Breathing Meditation into my daily life. Ki Breathing Meditation affects body, mind, and emotional state.

Ki Breathing Fights Stress and Disease

Ki Breathing techniques developed by Koichi Tohei slow breathing and heart rate lower blood pressure, and counters all stress-related symptoms. Breathing comes naturally, yet most of us never master the technique, not even close to our fullest potential, and breathing seriously impacts physical and mental health.

The interchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place in our lungs and organs throughout the body. When we breathe properly, the vitality of our body increases. We gain a strong body that can fight off disease. And when we do get sick, we have the strength and energy to recover quickly.

Though the average adult’s lung capacity is 3,000 cubic centimeters, during untrained normal respiration, we inhale an average of 300 to 500 cc of air. Tenseness, sickness, and anxiety produce states of even shallower breathing. An adult trained in Ki Breathing fills the lungs to between 5,000 and 8,000 cc capacity.

At the base of the windpipe, air enters bronchial treelike branches and travels down thin tapering ducts terminating in air sacs called alveoli. About 300 to 700 million alveoli cover an adult lung. This alveoli rainforest serves as both entranceways for oxygen and exit for carbon dioxide. Yet the average adult uses less than ten percent of this life-giving arena.

Ki Breathing Meditation involves relaxation and positive visualization. At least during the time that you Ki Breathe, let go of negative thoughts and accentuate the positive. You will need to try different approaches and see what works for you. Sometimes I say to myself “Feels so good!” At other times I say, “It breathes me.” Most times I say nothing. Just relax and breathe. You will notice a powerful mental and bodily effect of positive emotive Ki Breathing. 

Let your shoulders drop, let go of tension in your gut, and allow your body weight to fall naturally to a point low in your gut. As you inhale, picture oxygen transported by the blood to every organ, cell, and body extremity. At the end of the inhalation, relax for a couple of seconds while holding this image. As you exhale, picture all of the wastes transported back to the lungs and carried out like an exhaust fan from the mouth. Relax while holding this image at the end of your exhalation.

Except for oxygen, you can survive for days without any of the other essential nutrients, including water. Cut off oxygen and you turn livid blue and get a complete and final shutdown. Inadequate supplies of oxygen affect your health from head to toe. Irritability, insomnia, anxiety, aches and pains, depression, memory loss, arthritis, impotence or frigidity, and the gamut of organ dysfunctions more often than not reflect a deficiency in the functioning of oxygen and glucose and the concurrent buildup of oxidants and wastes.

Add job and domestic stress and you’ve got karoshi, sudden death through overwork and fatigue, a phenomenon coined in Japan. Mislabeled Sudden Death Syndrome, karoshi results from prolonged stress, cellular starvation of nutrients, and a concurrent buildup of toxic wastes. By severely cutting the supply of nourishment as well as limiting the elimination of poisonous wastes, some people commit a prolonged, painful, and highly effective suicide.

By breathing deeply, keeping one point, and relaxing completely, all the capillary vessels open, and oxygen is sent to every organ of the body, and carbon dioxide is carried away. Ki Breathing Meditation helps to control high blood pressure. Ki Breathing is an elixir of life. If we continue to practice unfailingly, we will be able to cultivate an invisible but powerful undercurrent of strength and healthy organ functioning.

The effects of Ki Breathing Meditation are incremental both over each session and over time. During a session, you may not notice results instantly. To feel the full effect it may take twenty or thirty minutes. But if you begin soon after getting up in the morning and continue if possible through your commute to work, you will arrive at work feeling balanced and alert.

But if you can focus for ten continuous deep relaxed breaths in and out – count them – you will feel pretty good. But focusing on ten continuous deep relaxed breaths is a challenge for most. It is so effective. Don’t take my word, just try it yourself, ten deep relaxed breaths in and out. When you experience the effect for yourself, I’m sure you will find a bit of time during the day or evening or night for another set of ten. But just do it when and as you like. 

Over time, your lungs stretch and you can take in much more oxygen and dispel carbon dioxide. When I had an ultrasound echocardiogram, my doctor noted the expanded size of my lungs.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Beyond oxygen intake and carbon dioxide release from the body, there is a neurological calming with Ki breathing. Breathing from low in the abdomen stimulates an extremely long pair of nerves, referred to as the vagus nerve running from the brain stem down through the neck and chest and into the abdomen. 

Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) treats extreme cases of depression. A pulse generator is inserted in the chest and a wire is threaded under the skin connecting the pulse generator to the left vagus nerve in the neck. The pulse generator sends out electrical signals along the vagus nerve to the brain. These signals affect mood centers of the brain, which may improve symptoms of depression.

A jelly-bean size microprocessor can be clamped onto the vagus nerve in the neck in about a twenty-minute surgery. Once in place, it is like a pacemaker, giving a short electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve. It provides pain relief to a rheumatoid-arthritis patient, who no longer will require medication.

You can stimulate the vagus nerves without surgery. Ki or low abdominal breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and triggers a relaxation response. The parasympathetic nervous system is set in motion, slowing the heart and calming the body. In the brain, the vagus nerve affects the limbic system, a group of midbrain structures of cells affecting mood, motivation, sleep, appetite, and alertness.

Perhaps babies and young children are more relaxed because they breathe deeply and fully with a relaxed belly. Their abdomen moves in concert with their breathing. It is the natural way of breathing. As we grow older and become tenser, we tighten our stomachs and breathe more shallowly and higher up. This breathing pattern is perceived by the body as a stress response and reinforces the sympathetic fight or flight nervous system. Stress hormones like cortisol are released and we feel stressed and uncomfortable.

Ki Breathing is all about attention. It can be a part of Metacognitive or Insight Meditation. Usually, the focus is on returning to normal breathing. But I return to Ki Breathing so it impacts physically, mentally, and emotionally. When I start to think or ruminate, I return to a focus on Ki Breathing.

Shinshin Toitsu Aikido

Shinshin toitsu aikido, introduced in the early 1970s by Koichi Tohei, means “the way to harmony with Ki,” emphasizing the Ki principle that the mind moves the body, and that by the coordination of mind and body we can perform to the best of our ability in all aspects of life. It is not necessary to learn aikido, Ki training provides skills for relaxation, calmness, and concentration.

According to John Bowlby’s attachment theory and Harry Harlow’s experiments with rhesus macaque monkeys, I passed the point of no return in the first two years of my life. Later in life, everyone and everything bothered me. I became distracted by a barely audible whisper in the classroom when I was teaching. Ki Breathing Meditation helps to lower my irritation trigger point.

Four Principles

Keep one point.

Relax completely.

Keep weight underside.

Extend Ki.

These four principles work together. To keep one point low in the abdomen, you need to relax completely and keep your weight underside. When you get angry and lose it, your energy radiates from topside. If you were to encounter an opponent in aikido with this top-heavy mindset, your opponent would easily throw you for a literal loop. With shoulders relaxed and weight underside low in your abdomen, you are immovable. Extending Ki creates a 360-degree buffer zone.

One of the defense postures is simply an extended arm. That’s it, standing there with your arm extended as an attacker races at you in a knife attack. And I held this posture one time and my attacker flipped backward and dislocated his shoulder. I did not even come into physical contact with him. I was completely relaxed, breathing deeply, with Ki flowing up through my entire body and out of the tips of my fingers. Extend Ki.

Keeping weight underside is a challenge to beginners. But it is simple. Gravity causes the weight of objects to naturally settle at the lowest point. If you relax completely, the weight of your body will settle low in your abdomen. Weight will fall to the underside of your arms when held extended and relaxed. All you need to do is relax your shoulders and stomach, and breathe in and out slowly and deeply.

In the West, we are brought up with the concept of physical strength. Aikido requires no physical strength. Aikido requires relaxing, keeping one point, weight underside, and extending Ki. You learn to calm yourself, remain focused, and allow the breath and life force to flow naturally. 

Think of every action originating from low in your abdomen. Life energy radiates infinitely outward on the out-breath and infinitely down into the one point low in the abdomen on the in-breath. When Ki flows, attackers fall as if by magic.

On the bare, hard, tatami mat, we practiced Ki Meditation for the first hour of every practice to unify mind and body. No student reaches a first-degree black belt or Shodan without “mastering” shinshin toitsu, mind-body coordination. My wife Hitomi weighs 85 pounds, but the test for black belt is the same no matter gender or size. She fended three attackers, all considerably taller and heavier.

It seems a paradox to stand completely relaxed facing charging attackers. Yet, this is the way to tap into a well flowing with power. Before beginning a session in the dojo, sensei (teacher) reads from a tiny black book of Ki Sayings written by Koichi Tohei. “Breathe out so that your breath travels infinitely to the ends of the universe; breathe in so that your breath reaches your one point and continues infinitely there. Ki breathing methods are an important way of unifying the mind and body.”

Haaaaaaaaaaaa . . .

 Open your mouth slightly and exhale with a whispering haaaaa.

Imagine your breath going out infinitely on your exhalation. If you are alone, make a haaaaaaaaaa whispering sound on the exhale. This keeps focus on the breath. When you breathe in, feel as though you are taking Ki of the universe deep inside, infinitely down into the point low in your abdomen and out to organs and extremities.

If you are sitting, sit comfortably with your lower back straight, shoulders relaxed, and weight falling low in the abdomen. Open your mouth slightly and exhale with a whispering haaaaa.

In that straight, but relaxed position, at the end of the long relaxed breath, lean forward as you let out the remaining breath.

Tohei says the exhale should last thirty or forty seconds. That is a really long exhale that very few will get even close to. Start wherever you are and progress slowly and comfortably. Exhale about five to twelve seconds. After exhaling completely, close your mouth, lean forward, and pause for two or three seconds before starting to inhale. Inhale through the nose, in-breath flowing down into your lower abdomen. A flow of oxygen courses into your blood and throughout your body.

Straightening, inhale a bit more and hold for a few seconds before the next exhalation. Use your body in this way to breathe in and out completely. Tohei says the inhalation should be a bit shorter than the exhalation, but let it come naturally.

Don’t Be Discouraged

If you are having difficulty, most likely you are not fully relaxed. When you are calm and relaxed, your breathing will be smoother and deeper. As you progress through the session, you will become more and more relaxed.

With each breath, oxygen is taken in by the capillary vessels that cover the air cells of the lungs and placed into blood vessels supplying the entire body. On the exhalation, carbon dioxide is carried to capillary vessels of the lungs where it is exhaled. When you practice Ki Breathing, you practice relaxed, deep, internal breathing where the whole body inhales and exhales.

Over time, you will gradually and naturally increase the in-breath and the out-breath. It takes about twenty seconds for blood to distribute oxygen throughout the body. If you get up to about twenty seconds on inhalation and exhalation, combined, you give the blood time to distribute the oxygen and time to carry away carbon dioxide from the entire body to the lungs where it is exhaled.

Don’t be discouraged if you find this difficult at first. Almost surely, you will find it difficult. It is difficult overcoming inertia and getting started. It is difficult staying with the breath and returning to a focus on breathing each time you get carried away in thought. And it is difficult practicing the four principles of Ki. Your breathing may at first be rough and choppy, but as you practice with the four principles of Ki, it will get smoother. You can practice the four principles of Ki and Ki Breathing Meditation anywhere, at any time of day or night, standing, walking, sitting, or lying in bed.

Don’t Try Too Hard

Time for sleep can offer time to practice Ki Breathing and meditation. If you breathe shallowly, CO2 collects in the bloodstream and can result in anxiety or panic attacks. Trying to fall asleep in this condition is like a pitcher worrying about throwing a good pitch, or like struggling to get aroused sexually. The more you try, the worse it gets. You breathe even more shallowly and take in even less than 300 to 500 cc. CO2 collects in the bloodstream and a sleepless cycle filled with anxiety gets progressively worse.

Increasing CO2 by even a very small fraction can have a noticeable impact. CO2 is a trace molecule in our atmosphere, at a low 0.3 mm. But CO2 levels on the International Space Station (ISS) were found to be between 2.3 and 5.3 mm. This resulted in headaches, irritability, insomnia, intense mood swings, and difficulties in performing onboard activities. CO2 is a vascular dilator and so can increase intracranial pressure. When CO2 levels were adjusted, all of these negative effects went away.

As you become experienced you can breathe many times more deeply. You nourish every cell in your body. If you experience insomnia, the time spent will strengthen you and likely help you to sleep. Insomnia offers extra time for your practice.

If you find deep breathing impossibly difficult, you likely are not Ki Breathing, but just taking breaths into your upper chest. Most people shallowly breathe, chest-deep. Stress causes small, quick breaths which cause even more stress.

Place your hand on your abdomen. If you are breathing in deeply, on the in-breath you will feel your abdomen swell, then contract on the out-breath. Conceptualize taking in breath down into your abdomen.

Open-Focus makes Ki Breathing easier and more effective by shifting your brain into relaxing Alpha waves. Narrow focus holds you in a state of constant stress that lies at the heart of anxiety and depression. And it is as easy to shift into Alpha state as focusing on the space all around, or between your eyes and what you are reading.

In the space of one complete Ki breath – internal breathing – new oxygen is carried to all organs and limbs of the body and carbon dioxide is carried from the entire body to the lungs and exhaled. By practicing Ki Breathing for fifteen to twenty minutes, the cells of the body are completely supplied with fresh oxygen, and wastes are carried away. We are charged with vitality, and we can realize our lives powerfully.

We can Ki Breathe wherever we are.  After learning and practicing the Ki Breathing methods correctly, we can practice internal breathing at any time in our daily life. We can Ki Breathe while sitting in a chair. We can Ki Breathe while lying down, so the sick can repair their bodies. Instead of ruminating and stressing out, we can use these moments to increase our strength and vigor and take control of our mind.

Self-help books that help:

Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus

The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body