There are many breathing patterns. I believe they all have their purposes. I clearly remember that I was never told how to breathe. I asked master: "how must I breathe?" He would look at me with a smile. "Just breathe! It would be a very bad if you don't!" I found that as you been to practice not trying so hard to properly breath, breathing becomes quite natural just as natural as an infant breathes. One of the most common and natural ways of breathing pattern the Tibetan's advocates is what I call: the breathing pattern of an infant or inverse breathing or reverse breathing pattern. Let's take a closer look at this: Start at the lower portion of you abdomen; expel all the air out of your system. Now follow the following:
Inhaling:
Begin to take in the air and at the same time expand your lower abdomen to it's fullest. Then continue taking in the air at the mid region as well as expanding your mid diaphragm. Continue this expansion at the upper region of the chest and take in the air. Now, this is where Tibetan differs with other reverse breathing patterns. Continue taking in air begin to expand the air over and into the inner chest region. I describe this similar to the earth's tilted axis that is going up and over.
Exhaling:
Begin to exhale your air as well as beginning to collapse the chest region. Continue to expel your air until all the air is just about expelled except a little residual of air remains. Now, at the bottom of the cycle just at the pit of the stomach begin to push that residual of air out. This is the other axis of the earth.
Quality:
Feel your breathe as alive. Experience the experience rather than counting the number of breaths. Breathe being expelled as well as being inhaled must be very refined. Slowly taking the air in. All breathe work are to be done as if it was the very first time breathing. Focus on the quality rather than trying to focus body gasping for air. Enjoy the expression of the various movements of the breathe: how it fills and leaves our body; the physical feelings and the emotional feelings. The essence of "breath".
