Breathing into the Flow

In ‘Ball in a Bin’ this issue we revisit awareness training and the technique of ‘looking without looking’ as a tool for encouraging intuitive response. The disciplines of Parkour and Free Running both take place in constantly changing chaotic environments and the ability to make quick decisions is paramount within or in order to maintain motion.

‘Looking without looking’ is specifically the act of looking ‘through’ rather than ‘at’ something so that we may break the limiting mindset of duality. Our intuition and spontaneity work much better when our thoughts and actions are flowing seamlessly rather than stopping on one thing. In order to experience the frame of mind we call Psycosis (when no gap exists between intuition and action) we can incorporate both ‘frame of mind’ and breathing techniques. In this issue of Philosophy of Breath we look at enhancing LWL and further encouraging Psycosis through right breathing.

Pressing the Breath

As a general rule, the location of the breath is often indicative of the location of the mind (remember that the mind IS NOT the brain). When the breath is high in the lungs then the brain tends to be more active with more thoughts and conscious interference. When the breath is pressed lower into the abdominal region we are able to put our mind in our ‘hara’ (see issue 3 of this section).

When your movements are flowing and your actions are inspired you will have no specific awareness of your breathing and it will, like all aspects of your mind / body, be performing in the ‘naturally correct way’ for that moment. It is when you come up against an obstacle or challenge that makes you pause, that establishing frame of mind and right breathing can be of assistance. Our natural tendencies as modern ‘thinkers’ is to begin analysing when confronted with difficulty. This is a learned behaviour. What we are practising is to respond to difficulty with intuition and inspired thought rather than analytical cognitive rationalisation.

One methodology of right breathing to assist in engaging the flow is to ‘press the breath’ when confronted with a problem. This is virtually the same mechanism as the hara breath except it needn’t last as long. Just ensure that when you breathe out that the feeling is of the breath leaving via the abdominals (see issue 3). When you breathe in this way and adopt a LWL mind-set you will begin to find that your answer will appear before you. Intuitive inspired thought rather than contrived thought will become the norm.

Leaking the Breath

Both PK and FR are very energetic sports that can leave you gasping for air. One problem with pressing the breath is when you are knackered and trying to simply get some O2 into the system. What I tend to do in this instance is maintain LWL and ‘leak the breath’. Because I’m gasping for air it is extremely difficult to press my exhale into my hara. So instead of pressing the exhale I simply leak the breath gently out. This is readily facilitated by reversing classic breathing methodology. When breathing in do so through the mouth and when breathing out, do so through the nose. Breathing out through the nose slows the breath. The best example of this I’ve seen is Rickson Gracie after a fight. Watch his breathing once he defeats Takada in the Pride fights.

Pretty soon after leaking the breath you’ll be oxygenated and able to start pressing it again. You can even begin pressing it while using the reverse mouth / nose system. Maintain LWL the whole time and you’ll have a good chance of staying in the flow, experiencing ‘Pure Psycosis’.

So go snort some O2 and spread the insanity.