| Much
of your breathing practice in Serenity Yoga has been leading
you to this moment - learning Core Breathing. Core Breathing
is the breathing technique we default to when we have no special purposes
for the breath in our Serenity Yoga practice. It uses your
whole body, moving the breath up from behind the navel (your abdominal
core), along the spine (your central core) and opens up your chest
to complete the breath, before returning the breath down in a wide
loop, back to your belly. |
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| When
mastered, these breaths become full and relaxed. From a standpoint
of your Energy Body, it moves through most of the major chakras, circulating
the breath along the entire energy pathway. It's great for meditation,
since it keeps your body open and relaxed. It's a powerful contributor
to your chanting skills by keeping all the resonating pathways open
and soft. Before you begin Core Breathing, it's best to learn
The
Wave and have practiced visualizations that
soften the breath while engaging the whole body, like Waves
on the Shore, The
Fountain and The
Sponge. |
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Main Benefits:
Paces and relaxes breathing; centers the body and the mind; trains breathing
with the whole body; calms; allows deep relaxation inside the body; clears
and cleanses most major energy centers; circulates energy within the energy
body.
Good for These
Practice Goals: Singing; Voice Work; Better Breathing; Better Sleep,
Bus, Chair & Office Friendly; Energy Healing; Pregnancy Yoga; Seniors
Yoga; Sports in General, and including: Running, Martial Arts, Golf; Clearing
Cleansing & Energizing of Belly, Solar Plexus, Heart, & Throat Chakras;
Useful during chanting from the Belly, Solar Plexus, Heart or Throat;
Calm; Focus, Peace of Mind.
Core
Breathing builds on the Wave breathing, the Fountain and the Sponge. You
will need to be comfortable with these before moving on to this exercise.
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Beginner's
Method
This will use
the skills you've mastered from The
Fountain.
If you don't know that visualization yet, take some time to learn
it and use it. Then come back here and discover the magic that it
brings to Core Breathing.
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* Imagine there
is a pool of warm water in your belly.
* This pool
is at the base of a fountain.
* The center
tube for this fountain is the center line of your body, a core tube
that runs in line with your spine.
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* The tube to
the fountain opens up in your chest.
* As you breathe
in, you're drawing water up from the pool, along the center
tube.
* The water
burst free inside your chest, splashing throughout the inside of
your chest.
* As you breathe
out, the water is tumbling down around the inside of your body,
returning to the pool in your belly.
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Softening
Core Breathing
After you've become very comfortable with
the Beginner's Method of Core Breathing, add this next step.
It will use the skills you've acquired in The
Sponge. |
- * Start
by imaging the pool of warm water in your belly.
- * This time
- take the time to feel the water softening your belly, dissolving
tensions there, warming the entire area.
- * As you
breathe in, you're drawing the water up from the pool.
- * Feel its
warmth climbing along the center of your body.
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- * As you
breathe out, the water is bursting free inside your chest.
- * Feel it
spreading warmth, softening your entire chest.
- * As you
continue breathing out, the water is pool back down to
your belly
- * It's taking
its time on the way down, soaking its way through all the muscles,
bones, tissues,
- * It's warming
them and softening them.
- * Then it
comes to rest at the pool in your belly again.
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| Key
Notice how this allows your body to feel softer deep inside, less
tight. |
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Advanced
Core Breathing
This
is essentially the same idea, only you let go of the concept
of water and replace it with feeling your breath moving from
your belly and along your core channel, up into your chest and down
to your belly again.
As
you do imagine your breath following this path:
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- * Feel your
breath as a pool in your belly.
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- * Feel it
circulating, warming, softening as it lifts up along the core
of your body, opens up your chest and sinks back down into your
belly.
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Advanced
Core Breathing for Energy Workers
Once you've mastered the basics of Core
Breathing and are comfortable with the advanced version, you can do
this variation in order to circulate and clear energy within your Energy
Body.
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| Instead
of visualizing water or breath, imagine your belly is full of bright,
clear, warm light. (It can be water colour you want.) Then feel the
light circulating along your core channel, up into your chest and
down to your belly again. |
- * Take your
time to feel the warmth of it
- * Feel it
clearing each area of your body as it passes by.
- * Notice
that, with each breath, each time the light circulates, it makes
you clearer and brighter inside.
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| Main Benefits:
|
Paces and relaxes
breathing; centers the body and the mind; trains breathing with the
whole body; calms; allows deep relaxation inside the body; clears
and cleanses most major energy centers; circulates energy within the
energy body. |
| Body
Parts Used by This Posture: |
Abdominals;
Upper, Middle & Lower Back; Obliques; Neck & Shoulders |
| Warm Up with:
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Abdominal Lifts;
Breathing Warm Up 1, 2 or 3; Butterfly Breathing; Simple Side Bend;
Breathing Warm Up 1, 2 & 3; Chest Expansion poses; Wood Chopper, Bust
Expansion, Eagle's Wings, The Hug; Triangle poses; Twists; The Fountain;
Waves on the Shore |
| Build Up To
with : |
Abdominal Lifts;
Abdominal Breathing; Chest Breathing 1, 1B, 2, 2B; The Wave; The Fountain |
| Builds You
Up for: |
Breathing Exercise
17 - Relaxing Your Internal Organs; Breathing Exercise 18 - Relaxing
Your Breathing; Breathing into Your Spine; Chanting; Meditation; Breathing
Themes 16A, 16, 17, 18, 22A, 22B, 22C. |
| Good for These
Practice Goals: |
Singing; Voice
Work; Better Breathing; Better Sleep, Bus, Chair & Office Friendly;
Energy Healing; Pregnancy Yoga; Seniors Yoga; Sports in General, and
including: Running, Martial Arts, Golf; Clearing Cleansing & Energizing
of Belly, Solar Plexus, Heart, & Throat Chakras; Useful during chanting
from the Belly, Solar Plexus, Heart or Throat; Calm; Focus, Peace
of Mind |
| Recommended
for These Health Conditions: |
Frozen shoulders; breathing difficulties including: allergies, asthma,
bronchitis, pneumonia, lung surgery, rhinitis; cancer; fibromialgia;
chronic headaches & migraines; high blood pressure; menopause & pre-menopause;
hyperactivity; attention deficit disorder; sleeping difficulties;
mind racing; calming during pregnancy. |
| Best
Alternative Exercises: |
The
Wave, The Fountain, The Sponge |
| Best
Breathing Theme Matches: |
Helps
your Green Level Breathing Theme Practices. |
| Best for Flexibility
or Strength: |
Flexibility &
strength |
| Traditional
Pose Type: |
Breathing Exercise |
| Energy Center
Used: |
Root, Belly,
Solar Plexus, Heart - and, on a good day, Third Eye and Crown. |
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Breathing Exercises 
