Going Within by Shirley Maclaine Page A

breathing. If I’m sitting in a chair, my feet are grounded flat on the floor and one hand is placed on each leg. I place my hands with the palms up and close my thumb and forefinger because that closes the body-current cycle and directs its energy to continue flowing in acyclic fashion without loss. I keep my lips and teeth closed gently, which also allows the recycling of energy.
    I gently rock back and forth and from side to side to “feel” my center and to make sure that I am comfortable. Then I try to imprint on my body the physical feeling when body and spine are centered, so that I will sit the same way behind the wheel of a car, at the dinner table, in front of the television, or at my desk. It’s a sort of Braille method of remembering how to sit. I don’t mean that I will meditate during those activities, simply that the position of my body will be infinitely more comfortable and less tense.
    After I am positioned I close my eyes and begin to breathe naturally. Then I use my breathing as a point of concentration. Concentration is necessary to meditation because it narrows the focus of awareness from the external world in order to access the focus on the internal. I actually follow the course of each breath as I inhale and exhale; in and out. It is remarkable how concentrating on one’s own breathing can enable one to enter a meditative state.
    The Eastern philosophies use controlled breathing to induce meditative states because it not only provides the intake of oxygen but also requires the expelling of carbon dioxide.
    Westerners generally don’t pay much attention to the multilayered role breathing plays in our lives. We take it for granted and are, in the main, completelyunaware of the miracle that is actually taking place about fifteen times a minute. But breathing is profoundly related to our physical and spiritual well-being.
    When we are stressed and tense, our breathing rhythms reflect such a state of mind—erratic, uneven, shallow, breathless, and so on. When we are peaceful and relaxed, the breathing rhythm is longer, deeper, more all-nourishing within. When we are depressed, or in moments of high stress, we automatically sigh or hyperventilate as though attempting unconsciously to inhale the “spirit force” and the oxygen that comes with a deep and nourishing breath of fresh air. The body knows, the spirit knows, but the Western mind doesn’t pay much attention.
    In the Eastern cultures, people are more aware of the effect of breathing on the human being. Therefore, they are more expert in how breathing can influence the mental and spiritual well-being of an individual.
    Buddhist monks, observed under laboratory conditions, can alter their states of consciousness by employing various techniques of breathing, which in turn affect the physiology of the body. They can alter their brain waves, heartbeats, and pulse rates by using the power of their own consciousnesses to control and vary their breathing.
    We could do the same thing, to a somewhat lesser extent. Sometimes when I find myself angry in a traffic jam, I simply close my eyes for a moment, block out the distractions around me by concentratingon the physical feeling as the air enters my nostrils, and gently inhale. I feel the breath and follow it to the innermost part of my chest, hold it there for a bit, then gently exhale. I do it again—then again. If I concentrate on the inhale-exhale rhythm, I am always amazed at how soon my anger dissipates and my energy is restored.
    To be more specific about it: learn to inhale to the count of ten seconds and exhale to the count of ten. You begin to feel the miracle of the science of healing through breathing. When you can do ten, expand the count to fifteen, then to twenty and so on. An accomplished yogi can take three minutes to inhale one breath and another three minutes to exhale! Try it and see what sophisticated control is involved. You will never take breathing for granted again, and the