Coherent Breathing®

1) Coherent Breathing is a form of “resonant breathing” that specifies breathing at the nominal rate of 5 breaths per minute and learning to relax deeply during exhalation. Periods of inhalation and exhalation are equal. View YouTube Video.

2) The attention should be focused softly on the “form” of the body, with body, mind, and spirit being present during the practice, i.e., not divided, ruminating, daydreaming, other. Focus on coordination of the diaphragm. View YouTube Video.

3) There are six master switches over which we “explicit dual control”, i.e., both autonomic and somatic control, sensory and motor. The six are: the face & head, the tongue and throat, the hands, the diaphragm, the pelvic floor, and the feet. By learning to relax these zones, we are able to shed tension on an ongoing basis.

4) Coherent Breathing is “sinusoidal”, meaning that the diaphragm should move in a sinusoidal manner. A pendulum is a perfect example of sinusoidal motion. I have said that “the sine wave is the signature of nature”. This includes the human body, down to the smallest quantum mechanical phenomena – sinusoidal oscillations that rise and fall.

5) Breathing “Coherently” (sinusoidally), generates a wave in the circulatory system. This wave (blood volume) rises in the venous tree when we inhale, and rises in the arterial tree when we exhale. Arterial and venous trees merge at the pervasive capillary circulation where the wave action of the blood results in fluid propagation into and out of the extracellular domain, and from there into and out of the cells. This is the way that the blood maintains the milieu interieur in which cells reside. For this reason, it is important to breathe in such a manner so as to generate a wave. Rhythmic exercise requires us to do this, and is a reason why exercise has a positive effect on all conditions, given that we are able and that the exercise is appropriate.

6) We must resist the need to “rush”. Being in a hurry all the time harms our health in countless ways. By resisting, our resistance will grow and we won’t have to resist.

7) We must resist the urge to exert more energy than our body can produce. This results in being “worn out”, which over time results in yin deficiency, aging, and disease.

8) The body must work against gravity, specifically when we are seated or standing. The human body is organized such that inhalation is the motive force that results in blood flowing upward against gravity. When we fail to inhale with depth, blood fails to flow with significance and arterial pressure increases to push blood up the venous tree. This is hypertension.

9) When we breathe with depth and rhythmicity, the blood volume in the venous and arterial trees should be equal, breath-to-breath, i.e., the volume that returns to the lungs via the right heart during inhalation is equal to the volume of blood that leaves the lungs via the left heart during exhalation. (Here referring to homeostasis.) The 5L of blood in the average adult body flows in a circle. As it does, it passes through the lungs where gas exchange occurs.

10) The body desires electrical connectivity with Earth. When connected electrons flow from Earth (negative potential) into the body (positive potential). The rate of flow increases when we are breathing deeply and rhythmically (the diaphragm is performing “work”), which requires energy production, increased ATP production. The harder the work, the more energy is required to perform it, the more electrons flow from Earth into the body. It is generally considered that we receive all the electrons we need for ATP production from our bodily intake of food, fluids, air. Yet, the harder we work, the higher the current flow from Earth to body.

11) Every aspect of the body is resonant. This makes our posture extremely important. By looking, we are able to find our own precise vertical resonant posture. We want to find it and cultivate it all the time, circumstances permitting. We can think of this as a harp string strung between Heaven and Earth. When our posture is resonant and our breathing is resonant, the string “plays”.

12) “Breathing Is A Circulatory Function”. Because it is, hydration is extremely important. 

13) I divide Heart Rate Variability (HRV) into “breathing induced changes in heart rate” and “changes in heart rate for other reasons”. Breathing induced changes have been known for a century as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and are not to be confused with changes in heart rate for other reasons. Coherent Breathing trains RSA.

14) The wave of blood generated by resonant breathing washes through the brain with every breath, rising up the ascending aorta during exhalation and down the jugular veins during inhalation. The corresponding EEG is approximately 10X the amplitude of functional bands delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma. A single deep inhalation followed by exhalation will cause alpha amplitude to rise with the breath.

15) If we remain perfectly still with eyes closed and breathe at the nominal rate of 5 breaths per minute, we will automatically begin to meditate (without knowing anything about meditation). Once we have cultivated an understanding of how to elicit this experience, we can carry it with us all the time with eyes open, going about our daily activities. This increased blood flow in the body and brain causes all of the low threshold muscle motor units to relax, muscle tension to subside, and bodily discomfort to melt away. Our movement becomes free-er and less constricted by chronically tense muscles. Hence we are able to move more freely, naturally, and faster.

16) There is a very strong analogy/correlation between human and giraffe circulatory physiology. They work in effectively the same way, where the giraffe is an extreme example.

17) What happens above the diaphragm (dividing chest and abdominal cavities) also happens below, but with opposite action and effect. As we inhale, we expand the chest but compress the abdomen. When we exhale, we allow the chest to contract, but allow the abdomen to expand. The abdomen possesses its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system, which manages “the gut” and activities of digestion. Like the autonomic nervous system at large, the enteric nervous system is working in synchrony with the action of the diaphragm, but opposite in phase.

Personally, I have found these principles to be the master key to health, happiness, and esoteric experience. I sought to find and experience esoteric experience for a couple of decades before I learned of this.

Thank you for your interest,

Stephe,rumi