The movement of breath and energy is from below the spine to above the crown.
This practice is best done in the early part of the morning. It can be done lying flat in the bed on your back or can be done after arising while sitting. If sitting, pay attention that the spine is straight and the head is supported above, held straight. "Belly Breathing" is preferred to constraining the breath in the chest alone.
Repeat the entire sequence 3 times.
Then repeat a few times up and down the spine with the breath through both nostrils only.
1. Breathing through one nostril can be made easier by first closing the other nostril with a finger.
2. This is a way to "prime the pump" of the breath.
3. The breathing through one nostril then can be continued even without the other held closed. You will notice that when you place your attention on the breath through one nostril it naturally gets stronger and more vibrant.
4. That is because the real emphasis is not on the physical breath alone. It is the subtle breath, or prana, the life energy we are focusing upon.
5. When breathing up and down the spine through both nostrils, become aware of the movement of the breath energy. Look for it as the interweaving serpentine energies of two strands in addition to two independent streams. Consider it as an active and repeating figure 8, or double helix.
6. Connect to and through the heavens and earth and the qualities of making active and balancing both within yourself. This is one way of facilitating the "head in the air and feet in the earth".
7. Through this practice you can become aware of the differences of qualities and consciousness between the in-breath and the out-breath. Become aware of expansion and contraction, positive and negative, receptive and outgoing, male and female, strength and beauty.
8. When breathing through both nostrils, become aware of how this differs than focusing on or through one alone.
9. There is a Greater harmony and balance that may be glimpsed, felt, connected to, and become as you do the practice. Look for this also.
10. All these experiences, understandings, and awarenesses of functions will unfold naturally with no additional effort - especially when continued by using this as a daily practice. By intentionally looking for them, this can happen more quickly, but is not essential to the practice.
11. Try as an experiment, but only after you have established the movement of breath as natural, the following: Reverse the breaths as you have done them. (In other words breathe out where in is called for, and so forth). See what happens. Is it easy and natural. Does the breath this way complement or work against itself in function. What happens to your consciousness.
Note that this may be unbalancing. It should not take you too long to discern what is happening. It will consciously make more clear some of the functions of breath. Follow this with a repetition of the practice as done "correctly", above to reestablish harmony.
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