Stress Managment and Breath Work for Caregivers
Four Aspects of Breathing: A Self-Inquiry

1. What is your breathing rate? How many breaths do you take per minute? Look at the second hand on your watch and count how many exhalations you make in a minute. Do this while you are calm and meditative, not during a period of physical or mental activity. Make sure you loosen your belt and are wearing comfortable clothing. A constricted abdomen will automatically speed up the breath.

2. Where do you breathe? How does the breath enter and leave? Where does it go, how deep in the body? Can you feel it moving through the nostrils, down the trachea (windpipe), in and out of the bronchi and lungs? Do you breathe with your nose or mouth or a combination? Do you feel the breath moving in your chest, in your abdomen, in your back, anywhere else? Can you feel the breath moving in your hands or feet? There is no right or wrong in this inquiry. Your experience of the breath does not have to concur with your knowledge about breath. For now, let yourself forget medical dogma and anatomical charts. Discover what your own senses have to teach you.

3. Which part of the body moves with inhalation and exhalation? Does your chest open or close or move at all with inhalation? Does your abdomen move as you breathe? A good way to answer this question is to place one hand on the chest and one on the abdomen and to notice which hand rises or falls in response to inhalation and exhalation. Another method is to lie on your back and place a lightweight paperback book on the abdomen and notice whether it rises or falls as you inhale and exhale. At the same time, does the lower back seem to press into or release from the ground as you breathe? Now place the book on your rib cage and again note the response to inhalation and exhalation. If you use two books, one on the left side of the chest, one on the right, you can find out if the two sides of the body expand and contract with equal ease. The back might also feel as if it presses into and releases from the ground. We sometimes forget that the ribs are designed to move front, sideways, and back. What about the sternum (breastbone)? How does it move as you inhale and exhale?

4. How does the breath feel? Does it feel smooth or choppy, deep or shallow, clear or turbid, light or heavy, quiet or noisy, easy or difficult, healthy or diseased? Pay attention to the subjective feelings and thoughts evoked by the breath. Is your breath a slow-moving stream or is it dammed by tension and anxiety? Images that rise spontaneously to consciousness are also important indicators of the quality of breath and Qi.