Section 2: Breathing
1.

Breathing – Rollercoaster Wave
Use the image of the wave and perhaps use your hand to trace out in the air, the
rise and fall of the breath.
2. Roller Coaster or Quantitative Breathing
 Extend exhalation/pause phase. Make the number of counts out a little
longer than the counts in. For example if it takes three counts to get the air in,
then make it 4 counts to get the air out. As you practice and become more
skilled attempt to make the number of counts out twice as many as the
number in. All the extra time spent in the exhalation/pause phase creates
greater relaxation with each breath.
Other points to make this breathing technique most effective are:
 Inhale through your nose evenly
 At the top of the inhalation, relax or let go of whatever muscle tension you
used to get the air into the body
 Exhale through your mouth letting the jaw and shoulders drop
 Let the air flow out of the body by itself and pause in the quiet spot so that
you spend a little longer on the exhalation/ pause phase with each breath until
you are spending twice as long on this phase compared to the inhalation
phase.
 Attempt to make this breathing action as smooth as possible.
 For people with busy minds, counting silently to yourself and seeing the
numbers can help you relax better.
Relax
3
1
3
2
2
2
1
3 1
1
2 3
3
2
4 1
1
2
3 
4
5
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
3.


Breathing Awareness Checks
Practice breathing with one hand on upper abdominal region and the other hand
on the opposite shoulder. Try to make most of the movement from the abdominal
region with very little movement across the chest or under the upper arm and
hand.
You can also place a heavy book on the stomach area when lying down and do
diaphragm pushups to strengthen and become more aware of how to contract
the diaphragm muscle. See figure below.
Awareness Checks
4
5
4.



5.

Diaphragm Pushups
Hand down the leg
Low and slow and long- use arms to guide
Temperature Focused Breathing
Inhale air in through your nose allowing yourself to feel the cool sensations of the
oxygen and energy as it moves through your nostrils down into your lungs.
Exhale through your mouth feeling the warmth and moisture of the air as it
passes over your tongue, lips and hangs around out in front of the lips.
Continue this breathing pattern fully feeling and being aware of the temperature
sensations.
Breathing – Lower Abdomen: In and Out The Back
Imagine the abdomen acting like a bellows expanding forward to suck air into the
body from an air hole in the lower back and backwards to push air out of the
body.
Inhale
Exhale
6.Threading Needle (f Adapted from: Peper, E. & Weijman, A.C.M. (2003).
Sit comfortably, now imagine that as you put on your shirt, the middle button fell
off and that you quickly have to sew it on. Get a needle with a very small eye. Hold this
in between the thumb and index finger of your left hand. Take a white thread with your
right hand and hold the thread between your right thumb and index finger. Bring the tip
of the thread to your lips. Whet the thread to make it into a point and then thread the
thread through the eye of the needle.
Now act out this threading of the needle. Really hold this imaginary needle in front of
you, bring the tip of the thread to the eye of the needle. Literally see yourself threading
the needle.
As you are focused and involved in this task, what is happening to your shoulders,
the blinking of your eyes, the location and frequency of your breath, the muscle tension in
your back, legs, arms and fingers?
In almost all cases, people would notice that during precise accurate work
(imaginary threading of the needle) they do not blink, held your breath, raise your
shoulders and tense your whole body making it more and more immobile,
This demonstrates that in almost all cases people hold their breathy when performing fine motor
skills. They generally have no awareness of doing so.