This week I've been learning something new to me, fundamental to Zhan Zhuang.
"They don't put much emphasis on breathing," my first anglo intructor Ron told me about the Tai Chi drop in school in chinatown, where I learned the basics of my practice.
And true, the philosophy of that school was that breathing would be something learned intuitively through the balanced movements.
There's something to be said for the simplicity of that bottom up approach. But it's possible that they simply didn't realize how much time we Westerners really need to spend to reform our breathing. If I had to do it all again I would have spent less time in the last ten years trying to achieve lofty standing goals like six months at dawn, and more time simply learning how to exhale.
I am convinced now that this is our worst and most destructive physical and spiritual habit, our bias towards the inhalation, and our unacknowledged anxiety that prevents us from truly exhaling all the carbon dioxide that allows for deeper oxygen intake that has more impact on our organs and overall vitality.
For the next few months I'm going to practice the whole body breathing that develops slow, long exhalations.
I have a theory. In the same way that better exhalation leads to better inhalation, expiration leads to inspiration. While we use the word inspiration to describe new and vital ideas, the word literally means in-breath. So perhaps if one wants to live a more inspired life, one needs first to allow all the old ideas and low energy to expire.
