Ki Breathing
Breathing can be a life-changing skill on the path to Total Self Renewal. I took Ki Breathing into my life from years of Aikido practice in Japan. Few people are aware of even the basic mechanics of breathing and its effects on our mind and body. Fewer know breathing as a potent skill for peak performance, flow, and transformation.
Snoqualmie Falls, Washington State
Image by Hitomi Dames https://flic.kr/p/esYieJ
Aikido I practiced in Japan is Shin-Shin-Toitsu-Aikido, Aikido with Mind & Body Coordinated. Ki Breathing is an essential part of mind and body coordination.
Lung Capacity
The average person’s lung capacity is between three thousand and four thousand cubic centimeters (about 6 liters), but in ordinary breathing, we inhale about five hundred to seven hundred cubic centimeters of air. This fraction of our capacity is insufficient to burn food completely into energy. Therefore, it is essential that by breathing deeply and using our full lung capacity, we stimulate the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide to make ourselves powerful and fully alive.
How do we go from using a tenth of our lung capacity to full volume? We might try forcing ourselves to draw in a great deal of air, but this is not possible if the capillary pathways throughout our body are constricted and not fully open.
Capillary Vessels
The capillary vessels are the pathways to breathing fully. When we are angry, sad, nervous, or worried, the capillary vessels contract and become narrow. By relaxing and expanding the capillary vessels, oxygen is fully inhaled, and carbon dioxide completely exhaled and we breathe easily and deeply. Organs and glands are stimulated to function smoothly. We develop a calm mind and healthy and vigorous body.
Power Breathing
To open the capillary vessels, begin with a few minutes of power breathing. Breathe in for about a second or so, then out for a second or so. Keep this going for about thirty breaths. You blow CO2 out of your system and saturate your blood with oxygen. After thirty of these breaths, inhale deeply and hold your breath as long as possible. You may get dizzy. Don’t fear holding your breath. Should you pass out –– I never have–– your body will immediately start breathing normally on its own.
Now repeat with thirty seconds of power breathing, but this time after thirty breaths let your breath out and hold it out for as long as possible. To help increase holding either in or out, starting with your toes, tense your muscles from your toes to the top of your head including your arms in an upward wave. Gradually you will increase the ability to hold at top and bottom. I max out at about a little more than a minute. Lung capacity decreases with age and I am eighty years old. I am doing great. I walk a brisk two miles and exercise at the fitness center.
I prepared a blog and YouTube video to get you started with Ki Breathing. You begin Ki breathing after this few minute session of power breathing. I do my breathing first thing in the morning lying on my back in bed. A calm and lucid vibrance to start the day. But get up as soon as you complete your Ki Breathing since you are relaxed and may likely go back to sleep.
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
