HATHA YOGA/PART 15
CHAPTER 15.
EFFECT OF CORRECT BREATHING
Scarcely too much can be
said of the advantages attending the practice of the Complete Breath. And yet
the student who has carefully read the foregoing pages should scarcely need to
have pointed out to him such advantages.
The practice of the
Complete Breath will make any man or woman immune to Consumption and other
pulmonary troubles, and will do away with all liability to contract
"colds,” as well as bronchial and similar weaknesses. Consumption is due
principally to lowered vitality attributable to an insufficient amount of air
being inhaled. The impairment of vitality renders the system open to attacks
from disease germs. Imperfect breathing allows a considerable part of the lungs
to remain inactive, and such portions offer an inviting field for bacilli,
which invading the weakened tissue soon produce havoc. Good healthy lung tissue
will resist the germs, and the only way to have good, healthy lung tissue is to
use the lungs properly.
Consumptives are nearly
all narrow-chested. What does this mean? Simply that these people were addicted
to improper habits of breathing, and consequently their chests failed to
develop and expand. The man who practices the Complete Breath will have a full,
broad chest, and the narrow-chested man may develop his chest to normal
proportions if he will but adopt this mode of breathing. Such people must
develop their chest cavities if they value their lives. Colds may often be
prevented by practicing a little vigorous Complete Breathing whenever you feel
that you are being unduly exposed. When chilled, breathe vigorously a few
minutes, and you will feel a glow all over your body. Most colds can be cured
by Complete Breathing and partial fasting for a day.
The quality of the blood depends largely upon its proper
oxygenation in the lungs, and if it is under-oxygenated it becomes poor in
quality and laden with all sorts of impurities, and the system suffers from
lack of nourishment and often becomes actually poisoned by the waste products
remaining uneliminated in the blood. As the entire body, every organ and
every part, is dependent upon the blood for nourishment, impure blood
must have a serious effect upon the entire system. The remedy is plain—practice
the Yogi Complete Breath.
The stomach and other
organs of nutrition suffer much from improper breathing. Not only are they ill
nourished by reason of the lack of oxygen, but as the food must absorb oxygen
from the blood and become oxygenated before it can be digested and assimilated,
it is readily seen how digestion and assimilation is impaired by incorrect
breathing. And whenever assimilation is not normal, the system receives less
and less nourishment, the appetite fails, bodily vigor decreases, and energy
diminishes, and the man withers and declines. All from the lack of proper
breathing.
Even the nervous system
suffers from improper breathing, inasmuch as the brain, the spinal cord, the
nerve centers, and the nerves themselves, when improperly nourished by means of
the blood, become poor and inefficient instruments for generating, storing and
transmitting the nerve currents. And improperly nourished they will become if
sufficient oxygen is not absorbed through the lungs. There is another aspect of
the case whereby the nerve currents themselves, or rather the force from which
the nerve currents spring, becomes lessened from want of proper breathing, but
this belongs to another phase of the subject which is treated of in other
chapters of this book, and our purpose here is to direct your attention to the
fact that the mechanism of the nervous system is rendered inefficient as an
instrument for conveying nerve force, as the indirect result of a lack of
proper breathing.
In the
practice of the Complete Breath, during inhalation, the diaphragm contracts and
exerts a gentle pressure upon the liver, stomach and other organs, which in
connection with the rhythm of the lungs acts as a gentle massage of these
organs and stimulates their actions, and encourages normal functioning. Each
inhalation aids in this internal exercise, and assists in causing a normal
circulation to the organs of nutrition and elimination. In High or Mid
Breathing the organs lose the benefit accruing from this internal massage.
The Western world is
paying much attention to Physical Culture just now, which is a good thing. But
in their enthusiasm they must not forget that the exercise of the external
muscles is not everything. The internal organs also need exercise, and Nature's
plan for this exercise is proper breathing. The diaphragm is Nature's principal
instrument for this internal exercise. Its motion vibrates the important organs
of nutrition and elimination, and massages and kneads them at each inhalation
and exhalation, forcing blood into them, and then squeezing it out, and
imparting a general tone to the organs. Any organ or part of the body which is
not exercised gradually atrophies and refuses to function properly, and lack of
the internal exercise afforded by the diaphragmatic action leads to diseased
organs. The Complete Breath gives the proper motion to the diaphragm, as well
as exercising the middle and upper chest. It is indeed "complete” in its
action.
From the standpoint of
Western physiology alone, without reference to the Oriental philosophies and
science, this Yogi system of Complete Breathing is of vital importance to every
man, woman and child who wishes to acquire health and keep it. Its very
simplicity keeps thousands from seriously considering it, while they spend
fortunes in seeking health through complicated and expensive "systems.”
Health knocks at their door and they answer not. Verily the stone which the
builders reject is the real cornerstone of the Temple of Health.
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