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Bring the benefits of meditation outside its direct practice

6 Dragons Kung Fu’s 5th Meditation Method can be considered as a part of the 4th Method (read Meditation method 4).

While the previous one is a complete meditative oriented activity, this extrapolation can be considered its “portable version”; it serves to bring its type of breathing in many other moments of our martial life:

Stretching (read Basic soft stretching and How to correctly perform stretching)
Daily relaxation / regeneration (read also 5 regeneration practices to recover after training)
…

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

The fifth meditation method

Preparation

The starting points:

Important, we will not repeat the details outlined in other types of meditation (read A meditation mini-guide: how to start, in this specific case, to have more detailed information, let’s see the 4th Method)
This type of breathing is suitable for most of the situations / activities that we will face (it can also be done by walking for example) but it is not applicable to everything
This practice is not good for fast / explosive or not repeating tasks like sparring, Fa Jing development (see Fa Jing: how to develop explosive power), footwork training (read /// Subscribe (it's free!) or Login to see this content ///), etc.
Whatever our position is, we have to try to keep our back straight (otherwise it will be difficult to use our complete lung capacity)
We can be seated, lying on the ground, walking, working, doing stretching or (almost) anything else
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The method

How to execute it:

We have to breathe slowly and in a noisy way
During inhalation, we have to swell the chest with the air and bring it as high as possible
While we inhale the abdomen narrows
The amount of inhalation must be medium-high (but we do not have to force us)
After the inhalation, we have to remain in position in apnea for a medium-low time, suitable for our breathing capacity (no excessive effort, a few seconds are enough)
After the apnea let’s exhale, we have to slowly deflate the chest and gradually extend the abdomen (without actively pushing the belly out)
The exhalation must be shorter than the inhalation (at least 3/4)

A note by Master Kongling – The duration of the apnea and the duration of the exhalation are strictly related to our level of practice but in any case, they must be almost effortless.

Final notes

A few conclusive thoughts:

We have to repeat the cycle in groups of 3 (or 6) for the time we have decided to spend (eg. for the entire duration of an elongation session, read for example The easiest method to do the side split)
For this method, to work in the best conditions, it is important that our mind is only committed to managing our respiration (no other thought must distract us from our focus, read The secrets of Yoga effectiveness)
In the specific case of stretching it is essential to visualize the flow of our respiration “extended” up to the part of our body that we want to lengthen (let’s imagine that the air that crosses our lungs comes to “massage” the area on which we are working, favoring its extension)
The practice is positive if at the end we feel reinvigorated and not exhausted, breathless, aching or head-turning (in that case, we have exaggerated with the breathing times and / or we have chosen a wrong position)
Each method does not exclude the others; let’s be gradual, meditation is a matter of patience (read Patience)
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In-depth video courses

Full body stretching exercises – A complete list of exercises to stretch our entire body

In-depth articles

Breathing for immediate relaxation – How and when is possible to use mediation to calm ourselves
How to meditate: 3 easy approaches (for beginners) – How to win the fear of meditation and why

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

How long do you stay in apnea?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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