CULT OF BEAUTY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 661, 14 January 1933, Page 20 (Supplement)

CULT OF BEAUTY.

Necessity for Breathing Correctly.

USEFUL EXERCISES. How many people, I wonder, know liow to breathe properly? If I am to believe those who have informed themselves on this matter, hardly one in ten of them could qualify. Yet right breathing is one of the very important features of health and beauty. With proper breathing you can help eliminate fat, or if thin, aid yourself in assimilating food. Right breathing Freshens the colour and brightens the eyes, and strengthens the vision. In a primitive state human beings have no need of instruction in breathing. They breathe naturally and properly, as do the animals, and as does the child. But civilisation has forced □r us human beings unnatural methods of living, of walking and standing and sitting, which have cramped the / lungs, and accustomed us to the use d£ only a part of them. ▲ Reserve Vitality. No one sect has made a study of correct breathing as the Hindu Yogis, and

from them one can learn the simple way of doing it and all the complex good that right breathing brings about. They have studied the subject for thousands of years, and are famous for having worked out various systems of breath control. These systems have different ends—to vitalise the body, or the brain, or the nervous system, or to develop a soft, beautiful voice, and so on. The system is based on the principle that the air contains not only the essential elements of oxygen, which the body must utilise to live, but another mysterious element called “ prana,” which we may consider as the principle of energy in everything, or the “Vital Force.”

We are constantly inhaling; this charged air, constantly extracting the former from the air and appropriating it to our uses. In ordinary breathing we absorb and extract a normal supply of “prana”; but by a specific kind of controlled and regulated breathing (what is known as Yogi breathing) we are enabled to extract a greater supply. This we can store away as reserve vitality just as- the storage battery stores away electricity, to be used when necessary. Persons who have mastered this principle, either consciously or unconsciously, are possessed of a vitality that has a magnetic effect on everyone with whom they come in contact. The very first lesson in the Yogi science of breath control that you must learn is to breathe through the nostrils. We have all probably heard from our youth up that we should breathe through the nose, but how many of us practise it consistently? Control in Breathing.

In order to acquire this practice, open the window and proceed as follows: Close the left nostril with the index finger of the left hand and breathe in the air with the right nostril. Then, while holding the breath, take away the hand from the left nostril and close the right nostril with the index finger the right hand. Breathe out through the left nostril.

Holding the right index finger on the right nostril breathe in with the left nostril and, changing hands, breathe out with the right. Continue to do this up to twenty, the breath in and the breath out counting together as one.

You can take this nostril breathing the first thing when you wake up in the morning and while you are still lying in bed. Do it again the last thing before you go to bed at night, when it is particularly conducive to calming you and putting you to sleep. When you have practised breathing through the nostrils for a week commence learning what is called the Yogi Complete Breath.

Three Incorrect Methods.

Three Incorrect Methods. In order that you may understand how this is done I must preface by saying that there are three methods of breathing: High Breathing, Mid Breathing and Low Breathing. Each by itself is incomplete. The Complete Breath combines all the good points of High Breathing, Mid Breathing and Low Breathing. It brings into play the entire respiratory apparatus, every part of the lungs. It is not necessary to fill the lungs at every inhalation with the Complete Breath, but one should inhale a series of Complete breaths several times a day, whenever you get the chance. The Complete Breath should be taken as follows: Stand erect. Breathing through the nostrils, inhale steadily, first filling the lower art of the lungs, and bringing into play the diaphragm. (Translate this to mean push out the stomach as far as possible.) Then fill the middle part of the lungs, pushing out the lower ribs. Lastly, fill the higher portion of the lungs, which will lift the chest. In the final movement the lower part of the abdomen will be slightly drawn in, which . movement gives the lungs a support, and also helps to fill the highest part of the lungs. At first reading it may appear that this breath consists of three distinct movements. This, however, is not so. The inhalation is continuous, the entire chest cavity from the lower diaphragm to the highest point of the chest in the region of the collar-bone being expanded with a uniform movement. Avoid a jerky series of inhalations, and strive to i attain a steady, continuous action.