Pipe Breathing

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ViewsAskew
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Pipe Breathing

Post by ViewsAskew »

In another thread I mentioned I stumbled on a breathing technique that was helpful in staying alert, but in calming me at the same time.

The following links are long and not all that straightforward. I'll attempt to clarify them.

I was reading about trigger points, learned of bioenergetic breathing, wanted more info, and eventually stumbled on this forum. With a bit of searching and reading, I finally found a page that explained how to do the breathing.

This is the page with both audio and video links. If you review all of the audio and video, you'll learn a complex meditative breathing exercise that uses multiple types of breathing. You do not have to learn it all if you are not interested.

The part I talked about was just the first part: pipe breathing. It is explained in the introductory audio and shown in the video.

The introductory audio is 52 minutes long. If you have nothing to do and are fascinated by this, it's interesting, but it doesn't help you with the breathing until the end. It's a lot about how this woman, Laura (of the blog I'd found earlier) came up with her method and the other methods it's based upon.

Note that you can download both the introduction and the breathing practice audios. But the practice makes no sense if you didn't listen to the part of the audio starting about 41 minutes in the introduction.

Make sure you listen to the disclaimer at the beginning. She says certain people should not use this technique. I think she means the whole meditative technique she teaches, not the pipe breathing technique, but, just in case, be careful.

After hearing the disclaimer, if you want to skip straight to the part that explains pipe breathing, wait until the audio is loaded then click the arrow to start it, and then move the slider so it shows 40:50 (left side of the slider) and 12:02 (right side of the slider). This is the beginning of the description of the technique, leading into practice.

I was a bit familiar with it because it was similar to breathing exercises I learned in tai chi. Based on what the trigger point article author said and what part of this audio said, some people have difficulty with pipe breathing at first.

They both recommended learning how to breath from your diaphragm before trying this. If you are not sure you know how, they suggest getting a hardcover book (hefty but not a 6" thick dictionary) and laying on the floor with your knees bent. Now, put the book on your lower abdomen (below your navel), and practice breathing deeply. The goal is to get the book to rise and fall evenly and at least 2 inches. The more, the better. Here is a link to how to practice that. Scroll down to Solution #2. Book Lifting for the description.

That's as far as I went when I first went here.

If you want to go farther, you can watch the video and learn the meditative breathing technique in its entirety. It uses pipe breathing as just a small part of it.

In the video, Part 1 demonstrates relaxation exercises. Part 2 shows a demonstration of pipe breathing along with 3 stage breathing. Part 3 shows meditative breathing.

Once you "get" how to do all the types of breathing, then you can do the Guided Mediation if you have any interest in it.

For all I know, there is a much easier explanation of pipe breathing somewhere, but since I was interested in eventually learning this entire technique, I didn't try to find one.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

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SquirmingSusan
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Post by SquirmingSusan »

This reminds me of another form of relaxation breathing I've heard of. I can't remember the specifics, but you inhale to the count of something, hold it to the count of something, exhale to the count of something...
Susan

ViewsAskew
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Post by ViewsAskew »

Almost all the tai chi breathing we did was inhale to a count, hold, exhale to a count, hold. So, it must be very common as you've done it before like that, too.

For all I know pipe breathing is just the name of what this type of breathing is called and that it's what yoga, tai chi and many other forms all use.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Wayne
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Post by Wayne »

I've never heard of it. When I first saw "pipe breathing" it made me think that you are breathing through some kind of tube or device.

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