Spring is here! When I look outside I see not only blossoms but "spring green" leaves, sprouting out of previously leafless brown branches. It is the time of leaves. When I think of leaves, I think of a very common leaf that most of us have in our homes or have at some point came in contact with but have no idea of its story; the Tea leaf.  
 
Growing up in Malaysia, I drank Tea often, even as a child. When I say Tea, I mean Black Tea or Wu Long Tea. When we went to a Chinese restaurant, they always served Wu Long or Pu Er Tea in a pot for the whole family to go with the meal. We had Afternoon Tea, around 4 to 5 o'clock, with some snack or pastry, something we learned from being a former British colony. It would often be a Black Tea, Orange Pekoe, which the British set up plantations for in the highlands of peninsula Malaysia. I only began to drink the classical Chinese style of Tea, Gong Fu Cha, when I was in the US. A Tai Ji brother (how we call a fellow student in Tai Ji class) was a student of a master calligrapher as well as of Tea. In Gong Fu Cha, we drink, smell and experience Tea in a ritual, that requires a certain state of calmness as well as introspection; this style of Tea drinking is more relaxed and is less elaborate than the Japanese Tea ceremony. Speaking of Tea rituals, my husband and I were married by performing a (semi-) traditional Tea ceremony, where elders of the family were served Tea; in their acceptance by drinking the Tea served by us, they symbolized their acceptance of us as a couple.
 
What is Tea? There are many misconceptions about Tea. Technically, when you say you are drinking Tea, then you are referring to the infusion of the leaf of the Camellia sinensis plant. All other teas, such as peppermint or chamomile, are not teas but "herbal infusions." Tea is the most widely drunk beverage in the world after water. Camellia sinensis originated in China but has spread all around the world and enjoyed, as well as adopted as their own. My research into Tea has revealed that we can trace how Tea came to that particular region or culture by the terms, Cha or Tey or even La. If the plant came by the land through the Silk Road or from the northern China then the term Cha or Chai was adopted, such as in Russia, Japan, Turkey or the Middle East. However, if the plant came by the water route from the South of China, by ship mostly brought by the European traders, then it was/is called Tea, The or Te, with the exception of Portugal, which uses the word Cha. The term La was passed on through South-West China to the neighboring countries like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
 
The Chinese believe that Tea was discovered by Shen Nong, The Divine Farmer or God of Agriculture; he is also the mythological emperor who taught the Chinese to farm and use plants as medicine. He passed down his knowledge through his tasting and testing of the herbs on himself through the The Classic of Herbal Medicine, Shen-Nong Ben Cao Jing. Shen-Nong is said to have used Tea an antidote to counteract any poisonous plants. In old pottery found in the Tian Luo Shan region in Fu Jian province in China archaeologists believe Tea was being cultivated almost 6000 years ago; that would be around 4000 BCE. But it wasn't until China's flourishing golden age of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) that Lu Yu wrote Cha Jing, The Classic on Tea, that drinking Tea became an art, a philosophical pursuit practiced by the cultivated scholarly class. It was the Cha Jing that also influenced the spreading of Tea into Japan, who then in turn created their own manner of drinking Tea, which is more well-known in the West. Chado, The Way of Tea, is influenced by Zen Buddhism and has become not just a cultural ceremony but a meditation, as well as a way of life.
 
In Chinese Medicine, in the lineage of Shen Nong, we use Tea as medicine. In the Materia Medica, we have 2 types of Tea. One is Lu Cha (Folium Camellia sinensis), Green Tea. It is bitter and cool, affects the Stomach organ. It harmonizes the Stomach, sinks the Qi down in cases of nausea and vomiting. A classical usage is to clear the head; Green Tea has an effect to clear headaches due to its circulatory effect. However, one has to be careful with Green Tea, as it can be too strong for people with weak digestive systems, those who have cool systems; this may result in digestive issues such as nausea and too stimulating for people with sleep issues. Green Tea has become a trendy drink due to its ability to aid in weight-loss and metabolism, as well as being high in anti-oxidants. In the Chinese medical point of view, it helps to dispel dampness in the body, as such aid in weight-loss. But no amount of Green Tea without dietary changes and increase in movement  can stimulate weight-loss. One common mistake that many make with Green Tea is to brew it with boiling hot water (100 degrees Celsius). As these leaves are not fermented, one has to use 80-degree hot water, so as not to burn the leaves. If you have found that your Green Tea was too bitter, it is because it was burnt from 100-degree water, which stimulated too quick a release of catechins from your Tea or that it was left too long to steep. So, to make good-tasting Green Tea, use no more than 80-degree (spring/filtered) water, 30-90 seconds brewing time and use good quality Green Tea leaves; often teabags do not contain good quality Tea. 
 
When you drink a cup of good Green Tea, it should taste like a cup of Spring; like liquid fresh spring leaves or grass in your mouth. That's why the best Green Tea is harvested in Spring. The Chinese and Japanese grow as well as produce the best Green Teas. They have made Tea not just a beverage but an art.
 
 
 
 
Image Tea Plantation by Dendhy Halbaik on Pixabay
Image Green Tea in Gai Wan by apple deng on Pixabay
​Image Shen Nong/Shinno from Wikimedia Commons

In my physics class in university over 20 years ago, my professor said something very profound. He said, "Physics is a matter of perspective, it's all about where/how you are looking at the situation that determines what you will see." I was so impressed then as I still am, that's why I remembered it till this day. It may be one of the only things I can remember from that class. Why? Because I realized that this professor was talking about life, not just physics. He gave me something really deep to think about even till this day.
 
A few years ago, I watched the Hollywood animated movie, Despicable Me 2, with my kids. I was struck by a scene, where Gru falls in love with Lucy and then gets informed that she will be transferred to Australia. As he walks through the park, the sun is shining, people are playing frisbee, doing Tai Ji Quan and playing music. Gru plays along because he's feeling good and in love. He gets to the mall and is informed that the project is over as well as that Lucy is getting transferred to Australia. He walks back just minutes after that; the sky is grey, the same people are there doing the same things as before but his view of them is different. He does not play along with them, in fact, they annoy him and he destroys the things that had earlier brought him delight. Gru perceives no more joy from the same events, even the sun doesn't shine anymore. It is not his environment outside him that had changed, but the environment within him. 
 
I am currently finishing up my reading of Dr. Bruce Lipton's book, "The Biology of Belief." Bruce Lipton is a cell biologist, epigeneticist who experienced his mid-life crisis as an eye-opening, paradigm shift towards consciousness of being. He lectures all over the world and on the internet about the power of consciousness, as well as its ability to affect the body. He provides the science to consciousness.
   
"Our positive and negative beliefs not only impact our health but also every aspect of our life[...]Your beliefs act like filters on a camera, changing how you see the world. And your biology adapts to those beliefs. When we truly recognize that our beliefs are that powerful, we hold the key to freedom." (Lipton 2015: 137)
 
He also describes how he does experiments with his audience when he lectures, where one group wears red plastic filters in front of their eyes and the other green. He then projects images on the screen such as a cottage, flowers, sunny sky and a message, "I live in Love," for those with red filters. The exact image for the green filter is a threatening dark sky, bats, snakes over a gloomy house and the message, "I live in fear."
 
"My point is that you can choose what to see. You can filter your life with rose-colored beliefs that help your body grow or you can use a dark filter that turns everything black and makes your body/mind susceptible to disease. You can live a life of fear or live a life of love. You have the choice!" (Lipton 2015: 137-138)
 
Dr. Lipton is right as was my physics professor. It is our perspective of life that creates the reality that we live in. If we choose to see every occurrence or sensation of our body as a hindrance, then we manifest the environment ready for disease and pain in our bodies. If we choose to live in fear that a virus is out there currently, waiting to infect and kill us, our bodies will probably create the environment to attract and nurture this virus. My question to you is, "What do you want to nurture in your body?"
 
Song: La Vie En Rose by Louis Armstrong
 
 
 
 
 
Reference
Lipton Bruce H. (2015): The Biology of Belief - Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles. Carlsbad, USA: Hay House Inc.
 
 
 
Image by Goran Horvat from Pixabay
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I was outside these past few days enjoying the warmth of the sunlight and the scent of spring. There is still a chill in the air but you can feel the earth is warming up and the plants are twisting their way out of the earth to reach the sunlight. It is the return of life and the energetic motion of rising upward. 
 
In Chinese Medicine, it is the time of the Wood element with the color green and the climate of wind; hence, be mindful of the cool wind when you go outside to get sunlight. The organs that are associated with Wood are the Liver and Gallbladder. They govern the sense organ of sight, the eyes, and the tissues are the sinews. Interestingly, the emotion related to this time of year is anger/ frustration and the sound of shouting. I say "interestingly" because one would imagine after a long, cold winter, it feels like a relief to have sunlight and warmth. Which it is, if we are allowed to grow outward. But if you imagine yourself as a plant breaking through stone to come out to the light but being restricted when you have all that powerful energy in you, you would become frustrated and at some point, angry. It is a time of movement. All that storing of qi inward in winter needs to start to move outward. As the Yellow Emperor Inner Classic or Huang Di Nei Jing, Su Wen Chapter 2 states:
 
"The three months of spring,
they denote effusion and spreading.
In heaven and earth everything comes to life;
the myriad beings prosper.
Go to rest late at night and rise early.
Move through the courtyard with long strides."
 
It is the time of the year to move our bodies and minds. This is why many of us feel like beginning new projects or starting to exercise. It is not just us humans but the energy of the season that inspires us to movement. The reference to "move through the courtyard with long strides" arouses in me the feeling of stretching.
 
I like stretching. I began formal dance training at the age of 5 and continue movement training even till the present. I feel blessed when I can move and stretch. It is like breathing for me, existential and essential for life. When the Chinese say "sinews," they refer to tendons, ligaments and fasciae. This is fascinating as I realized that being flexible has more to do with our connective tissue, which are made up of collagenous, elastic and reticular fibers, than to do with our muscles or bones. More and more scientific research into the body is revealing that we do not know everything about the body. For the longest time anatomists thought that they discovered all there is to know about human anatomy. Then not so long ago, they realized that fasciae are not just "junk" tissues around organs and muscle, but a deep network of tissues that connect the whole body. Currently, more connective tissues are being discovered and they are realizing that stretching is a very important component to having a healthy body. In The Science of Stretch, Dr. Helene Langevin describes her research with stretching connective tissue with acupuncture and how deep the effects of this stretch are on a person. 
 
For me, stretching goes even deeper than connective tissue; stretching my physical body brings me deeper into my mental, emotional and spiritual being. This is why I like practicing Tai Ji Quan, Qi Gong and Yoga. These practices incorporate breath, movement and stretching of my body, as well as the awareness of Qi. I have learned to focus and discipline my body-mind, being aware of sensations in my being as well as the environment that envelops me. I have learned to distinguish between a beneficial, stretching sensation and the sensation of ripping, piercing pain when I have overstretched; in other words, I have come to know the healthy boundaries of my body. This does not stop at the physical body, it extends to my awareness of the other aspects of my being, be it emotional, mental or energetic.
 
If you are sitting in your chair right now reading this blogpost, begin by opening your chest to the sky and lifting your arms above you. Feel how good that feels. It is now the time to move, turn off your digital device and get stretching!  
 
  
 
 
Reference
Unschuld Paul U. (2003): Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen - Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Test. London: University of California Press, Ltd.
 
 
 
Image by kevin burt on Pixabay
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We will soon be experiencing the second new moon after the Winter Solstice; it is the Chinese New Year. We will enter into the year of the Metal Ox. It is a Spring celebration, the returning of life after the death of the land in winter. There are many symbols used in this celebration; the animal that the year represents, the color red, the plum blossoms, fish...this got me thinking. Why fish? Some believe that it has to do with the sound of the word in Mandarin; the word for fish, "yú," is also the sound used for the word "abundance." Hence, the fish is often pictured as a pair or more, double or more abundance, and is eaten for the new year. I believe that it goes even deeper than that and it is not just in the Chinese culture but across cultures of the earth. The fish is a symbol of life, abundance, fertility. Part of the reason for this is that fish live in water and water is the medium for life on earth, as I discussed a few posts ago. 
 
For a long time now, I have been interested in finding out more about evolution. What most of us know as evolution is based on the Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection; it is often summarized as "Survival of the Fittest;" pictured as a few figures moving/ progressing from left to right, ape to primitive human to upright Homo sapiens of today. However, there are other theories of evolution not just the Darwinian one, which proposes that an organism that best adapts to its environment will survive and reproduce. When Charles Darwin published his work "The Origin of the Species" in 1859 he was doing so after Alfred Russell Wallace, a younger, less experienced and less financially-stable naturalist/ geologist, among other things, had written Darwin to describe similar ideas of species evolution in his travels in the Amazon and South-East Asia a year prior. Darwin and his associates decided to publish Darwin's work before someone else, such as Wallace did. Hence, we associate evolution with Darwin, not Wallace. In fact, there are other ideas of evolution that pre-date Darwin but were not accepted by society or the scientific community of the time. One such individual is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French zoologist, who published his findings and hypothesis almost 60 years before Darwin, but was ridiculed by the French scientific community of his time for his bold hypotheses. One of his suggestions was the "inheritance of acquired characteristics," which states that an organism can acquire and pass on to its offspring characteristics or adaptations which it acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. Lamarck was not given credit for his work, even ridiculed and forgotten until now, about 200 years later.

"One reason some scientists are taking another look at Lamarck is that evolutionists are reminding us of the invaluable role cooperation plays in sustaining life in the biosphere. Scientists have long noted symbiotic relationships in nature." (Lipton, 2015)

New ideas and perspectives are emerging in science as well as in society. For so long, we were exposed to the idea that "only the fittest survive." Currently, more are realizing that the reason we humans have survived and thrived till this day is because we learned to cooperate with each other; banding together to stay warm; pitching our resources together to feed more over a longer period of time. We learned to live in symbiosis with other humans as well as other living beings and our environment, which one may dispute with the current state of affairs on the earth.      
 
My interest in evolution has revealed to me how everything on this planet, if not the universe, is related to one another. It has shown me how all vertebrates including humans were once fish. Click the link to watch a fascinating documentary on our inner fish ancestry. These creatures lived in oceans and over hundreds of millions of years, evolved to have limbs, that then transformed to hands with opposable thumbs which we have today; that allows us to create the reality we live in today. So maybe the Chinese are celebrating Chinese New Year with symbols of the fish not just as the beginning of a new year, but also as an honoring of the roots of our existence on earth.    
 
 
 
Reference
Lipton, Bruce H. (2015): The Biology of Belief - Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles. Carlsbad, USA: Hay House Inc.
 
 
 
Image Koi by endri nana nana on pixabay ​

                                                                            Dao De Jing, Chapter 11 by Lao Zi
 
In Chinese philosophy and Qi Gong there is a concept of Wu Ji, which can be translated as "The Great Nothingness" or "The Supreme Emptiness." You may often see a Chinese/Japanese calligraphy of a circle, like the one above, this is Wu Ji. This calligraphy hangs on our wall at ICM in the space where we practice Qi Gong/Tai Ji Quan/Yoga. On a few occasions, as I was practicing with students, I began explaining this concept of Wu Ji and only through my explaining this profound subject have I begun to see a fragment of the larger picture that the ancient philosophers were referring to. 
 
As we look at the image above, we see the black ink of the circle but what of the space inside of the circle? That is Wu Ji. It embodies that Great Emptiness. It is both space and time. One of the insights to Wu Ji came to me one day as I was attempting to explain it as I was teaching. I realized as I looked at the image that Wu Ji is "filled emptiness"; the circle may be empty but it is not deflated. 
 
I recall my teacher, Shi Fu Donald leading us in meditation many years ago. He led us to that moment/place before Yin and Yang, before the "I" becomes. It was a very profound moment for me; I was pondering what would be before Yin and Yang, a sense of wonder manifested in me. All through our training in Qi Gong/Tai Ji Quan, we first find Wu Ji and then begins movement, physical or energetic. It has come to me that Wu Ji is "before the beginning." It is even a specific position in sitting or standing, as well as a moment, space or state before we begin a practice. Shi Fu Donald also taught us a Qi Gong form called Wu Ji Qi Gong or Primordial Qi Gong. 
 
When we read the Chapter of the Dao De Jing (Pin-Yin for Tao Te Ching) above, this is what Lao Zi is trying to convey to us. He is trying to show us that the space in the middle of the wheel, the emptiness in the cup, the space in the house and non-being is what creates us as well as our reality. Lao Zi was a famous Chinese philosopher who lived around the 6th century BCE. He is said to have founded Daoism and wrote the Dao De Jing, which has 81 chapters written in verses like the one above, each barely filling a page. It is, after the bible, the second most translated text in the world. As with many things in life, "less is more."
 
Next time you look at your hand, look into the spaces between your fingers. Your hand exists because the spaces between your fingers exist. This time of winter invites us to look into the spaces in between. There are very few leaves on the trees but there is more space between the branches. Just as we can give ourselves more time and space in our lives between appointments or work to find Wu Ji in our everyday.
 
 
Reference
Lao-Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell (2011): Tao Te Ching - The Book of the Way. London: Kyle Books.
 
 
 
Image Wu Ji by Elaine ​

Over the past few months, I have been fascinated by the geological and natural occurrences that we on Earth experience, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. I had little awareness of the Earth’s plates and their movements until I watched a few documentaries about them. I lived in the San Francisco area, which lies over a very active plate, so I had often heard of the San Andreas Fault. I even saw the Hollywood movie of that name but it still didn’t explain much of this whole idea of the tectonic plates and the Earth’s movements. As I become more informed, I realize what strong forces the Elements are and, how they shape and affect us. 
 
It is the time of the Water element currently; Winter has begun and we feel its effects. The first snows came a few weeks ago, it didn’t stay for us in Basel but we all saw and felt it. It affected everyone I met that day; whether they felt cold or didn’t sleep well or that they were just excited and invigorated by the snow. Snow is Water and Water element governs winter in Chinese Medicine. If there is someone who really understood the seasons is Antonio Vivaldi, the musical composer who lived from 1678-1741. He composed The Four Seasons (Le Quattro Stagioni) as music with sonnets. Listen to the music and read the sonnets, (turn on subtitles), you will feel Winter deep in your bones even if you are sitting in a warm place. 
 
Water has existed on our planet since 4.3 billion years, our planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. I watched a documentary about the Origin of Life. It explains how the Earth was created and transformed to what we know of it today. To show how old the Earth is in relation to us, in the span of 24 hours, we would occupy the span of the last 4 seconds. 4 seconds! We, humans, are but 4 seconds in the history of the Earth! It sure puts things into perspective. Water comes early on this clock, somewhere at the start of the second hour. In fact, Water is key to the origin of life on Earth. It is a solvent that provides possibilities for molecules to interact with one another in multitudes of ways, thus, creating different lifeforms. 
 
The Earth surface is covered with 71 percent of Water. It is estimated that the human body is made up of 60 percent Water. This correlation between Earth and the human body is not a coincidence. It is Water in us and on Earth that creates, maintains and draws life. In Chinese Medicine, Water governs the organs of Kidneys and Urinary Bladder; they both deal with the transportation and organization of Water in the body. The Kidneys have a very special place in our medicine, it is the organ that holds life essence, interestingly it is the only internal organ that manifests itself as a pair. The external organ that also has the form like Kidneys and are a pair are the ears; they too belong to the Water element. Water's cardinal direction is the North, where the climate of cold originates, its color is black/dark blue and its taste is salty. It also manifests in bone, what remains of us when our flesh is long gone. Trust is the emotion of Water in balance and fear is the emotion of Water not in balance.
 
"Fear, which corresponds to the kidneys, is a perversion of the movement of Water. Water is a controlled attraction downward that solidly maintains the foundations of life. Fear is an unrestrained sinking, an uncontrolled descent." 
​(Larre, Rochat 1992: 173)
 
The energetic movement of Water is downward. As with Water, winter shows us and even demands of us a downward, rooting feeling, not an "uncontrolled sinking" but a conscious storing of the energy deep down and within ourselves. By demand and "uncontrolled sinking," I refer to those moments when we chose to continue working when our bodies told us to stop, then we ended up getting sick and having to spend the quiet, restful moments in bed, feeling like a truck ran over us. Conscious storing means, go to bed earlier, spend more time in quiet contemplation, read/listen to material that links you to your inner self and also into deeper connection with our fellow living beings. There is much out there to make us fear, but this is where we find within ourselves that deep water, full of powerful lifeforce that seeks to maintain life. 
 
 
Reference
Larre, Claude/ Rochat de la Vallée, Elisabeth (1992) : Rooted in Spirit. New York: Station Hill Press.
 
 
 
Image by Elias Sch. from Pixabay

As we go through the seasons of the year and I observe the changes of the climate, it reminds me of the Wu Xing or 5-Elements or 5-Phases. This philosophy is not just a Chinese medical theory but one that was/ is observed in all areas of life, as with the Yin-Yang philosophy. The 5-Element philosophy is very old. Historical records display writings and observances of it since the start of the Han Dynasty in 206 BCE, but the ideas of this philosophy are much older.
 
I am impressed by how so many, if not all areas of our lives are influenced by the 5-Elements; whether it be seasons of the year, cooking food, making medicine, breathing techniques or making day-to-day objects/ crafts that we use in our lives. There are traditions all around East-Asia (i.e. China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea) where the 5-Element philosophy is part of normal, daily life. As I contemplate the element that we are experiencing at the moment, the Metal element, I can't help being reminded of the skilled Bladesmith, one who works with Metal to create tools/ weapons. The Japanese are famous for making the best knives and swords in the world. The Katana, the Japanese long sword, is most celebrated for its artistry as well as its sharpness and ferocity. It is a blade so fine and flexible but so resilient, in the hands of a skilled swordsman (or woman), you would be unaware of its cut until it is done. You can tell how many martial arts movies I have watched growing up in Asia. What fascinates me most is not the end product, the sword, itself but the process in which it is made; how the 5-Elements are present in the process to transform raw Metal into a tool, an art form. The Metal is put into Fire to be smelted, then comes the process of the forging, which involves more Fire, Water, Earth and of course to begin with there was Wood for Fire. In the process to create this tool, the 5 Elements were going through the generating and controlling cycles, all in movement towards a creation and transformation guided by the human hand/ mind.
 
I feel this often when I practice Qi Gong, Tai Ji Quan or Yoga. I sense the Elements in me, helping me transform my body, my mind, my being to connect/reconnect within and without. What then manifests outwardly is simply a product of the process, there is no product without the process. So if I perform a headstand, it is a coming together of the elements within and around me to find an inward balance, which then manifest as me balancing on my head in the physical realm. 
 
Another of the Breath practice that I have gathered on my journey is the 5-Element Breath Sounds. It is a practice that involves the exhalation as a sound. Many of us make sounds quite instinctively, in the form of a sigh or a groan. This practice is a conscious manifestation of Breath to balance the organs and elements. Practice the sounds like it is listed from above to below, as this is the generation cycle. You may notice that the Fire element comes twice. There are reasons for this that I won't get into in this post. Do try the breath sounds and sense how they affect you! 





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5-Element Breath Sounds


Element   WOOD 
Organ       Liver
Sound       Sheeee 
Element    FIRE                        
Organ       Heart                     
Sound       Haaaa                               
Element   EARTH
​Organ       Spleen
Sound       Hoooo
Element   METAL
​Organ       Lung
Sound       Tssss 
Element    WATER
​Organ        Kidneys
Sound        Huuuu
Element     FIRE
​Organ        Triple Burner
Sound        Heeee​

Image Smith by Dirk Hoenes from Pixabay
Image 5-Element Sheng Cycle by Elaine

When you look at a baby calmly sleeping, you will observe how her/his breath is deep and concentrated in the belly. When we come into the world, we are physically connected to our mothers through the umbilical cord at our navels on our abdomen. About 5 weeks after conception, the umbilical cord begins forming and connects the embryo to the placenta and its mother, to received nutrients, water and oxygen, as well as to excrete waste. This continues on until that moment the cord is cut after birth. At this point in time, the child becomes its own being in itself and must begin its own respiration. When a child is calm, we will see that it breaths deep into the abdomen. However, life happens; stressors occur throughout our childhood into adulthood and we begin to forget that place in the abdomen where we were/are connected to life, if we are unaware. Then, we begin to breathe more superficially, moving the chest in order to receive more air but this does not nourish us in the long-term. In fact, it creates tight muscles and can trigger the sympathetic nervous system into the "fight-or-flight" stress mode. 
 
Many traditions of the world have specific methods of breathing in order to support health or even to attain deep connection to the divine. One of these methods I have found to be very helpful and is almost universal to many traditions is "Diaphragmatic Breathing," "Abdominal Breathing" or as we in the Chinese medical tradition call "Natural Breathing." In the Chinese Qi Gong tradition, the main focus of this breath is the Lower Dan Tian (lower energy centre) in the area below the navel. We breathe deeply into the lower abdomen, allowing it to expand and contract freely as inhalation and exhalation occurs. This increases oxygen intake, increases circulation in the abdominal muscles, provides a massage for the internal organs and calms the entire body-mind, activating the parasympathetic nervous system.

Can you imagine how life would be if we were in a continuous state of calm? How would we make decisions? How would we interact or react to one another? How would we live life? Obviously, it is unrealistic to expect that we can always be in this state, as we do need a certain amount of "stress" to grow and develop physically, mentally and spiritually. But the longer we can stay in this state, the healthier it is for our minds and bodies, as well as for the people/environment around us. The aim of Natural Breathing is for us to return to what we once knew but perhaps forgot. It is innate to us and it just takes practice to remind our bodies-minds of something it already knows. If you keep a practice of 5-minutes daily for a year, your body will remember it for the rest of your life.
 
Personally, I practice this breathing technique almost all the time now for more than 20 years. It did not feel natural at first but with constant practice and patience it has become intuitive. When I am relaxed or stressed, I instinctively practice Natural Breathing. I consciously breathe this way when I get my blood pressure measured (which most times has a normal reading) or when I go to the dentist or when I have to do a test. I practice this way of breathing almost every night before I go to sleep, placing my hands on my abdomen, just focusing on the rising and falling of my breath as well as my abdomen till I fall asleep.  
 
Below is a step-by-step guide to Natural Breath. Happy Breathing! :-)    

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​Natural Breathing

1. Find a comfortable position in lying, sitting or standing. Place both hands on your lower abdomen by your navel (like in diagram below​).
2. Begin by inhaling and exhaling into your abdomen. Observe if the abdomen rises and falls with the breath. If it does not, begin to sink the breath into the abdomen.
3. Imagine your abdomen as a balloon, when you inhale, you are blowing air into the balloon enlarging it, and when you exhale the balloon is shrinking. In the beginning, this may feel forced or unnatural. Be patient and keep practicing, it will become natural when you practice it regularly for some time.
4. Inhale and exhale only through the nostrils, expanding and contracting your abdomen respectively.
5. Begin to slow down the breath, keeping a regular and an equal rhythm of inhalation and exhalation.
6. If you have never done this before, begin by performing 10 breaths at least once a day. After a week of regular practice, begin extending it by increments of 5 and stay with this for another week before increasing the increments.
7. You may practice this as often as you like in a day and even at night.
8. Side-effects include digestive rumblings in the abdomen (stimulation of your natural digestive functions), calmness, relaxation, feeling well and healthy.

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​Image Baby from esudroff on Pixabay
Image Abdomen from Eduardo RS from Pixabay