7 notes of Breath

Systematic approach to the Breathwork

By Liubov Bogdanova

 

Music notes and Breath: what is in common

Everyone knows 7 notes of music. They build the whole treasury of world music culture, diversity of styles, genres, schools, streams as well as a range of all possible music pieces from the past to present.

Similarly 7 notes of breath build the world treasury of breathwork, from the ancient breathwork schools to the lately invented modern author techniques, as well as the world collection of breathwork exercises.

If you know the notes…

If you know the musical notation, you can make use of any music piece, sing any song, you can create your music and share it with the others. Of course you can just listen to the melody and just whisper or chant it. However, for the professionals knowledge of musical notation is a must.

Similarly, knowledge of the 7 notes of breath is very useful for everyone who studies breathwork,   and for the professionals it is the base of their conscious breath mastery knowledge, balanced with intuitive approach.

Story of “the 7 Notes of Breath”

When I had started studying breathwork, it looked like an endless learning path. The teacher gave us different techniques and instructions, sometimes small breathing exercises, sometimes large practices, sometimes various modifications to the same practice (we used to call it ‘Rebirthing breathwork session”).   We got some experience and results, however in the end I was confused. How do I know when I have enough understanding? Do I have enough practical skills? Do I fully understand breathing of my students?

From my main breathwork teacher Dan Brule I got advice not to limit myself to one school, but attend other schools and learn breathwork there too.

So I did and I got even more confused:

– sometimes exactly the same exercise was presented by different schools but they called it different name;

– sometimes the name of exercise was the same, but the instructions were completely different;

– some teachers had no idea about active or passive form of inhales and exhales, very vague understanding of energy breathing and big variety of names for 3 breathing areas: diaphragmatic, belly, rips, sides, clavicles, and so on…

– I came across different approaches to what is “a proper/correct” breathing;

– some technical aspects of breathwork at one school were considered harmful, but at other schools they were considered useful and people get wonderful results;

– various schools fight each other…

However I strongly believe that underlying feature of breathwork is integrity, and there is no place for infighting or arguing about different breathing techniques. So I wanted to find a way to make it clear.

Anyway, I was encouraged to understand all the details of breathmastery, but such a mess in the very basic things made me look for certainty.   One day I decided to put aside mental definitions and judgments and concentrate on the work of breath itself – learn from the breath itself. I realized that everyone was changing some parameters in order to practice some breathing technique, and I started making a list of them. It resulted in an inspirational coincidence – there are only 7 of them!   7 is a very specific number – breathing gives the same result as 7 colors of rainbow, 7 charkas, 7 notes of music.

At that moment I came to a realization: 7 notes of music give life to infinite number of music pieces, 7 notes of breath produce infinite number of breathing exercises. Music has various styles and approaches – and breathwork has various traditions and modalities. Music gives a choice of songs or instrumental pieces, breathing gives a choice of specific breathing exercises – and every single stile and piece have their fans, supporters and virtuosos and masters.   But there is no struggling, no opposition, because in the end all schools have the same foundation – 7 notes.

Let me share with you some drawings, which I made to present the list of breathwork parameters as well as some general ideas and introductory comments.

There are many details and possibilities in every parameter, if you like to know more, you can join one of my programs as a breathwork student or breathwork practitioner. Also I found out that these parameters are a great platform for developing programs for students.

Parameters of breath regulated through the key of body

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  1. Speed (Rate)

On the picture you can see the interval from 8 to 12 breathing cycles per minute – this is the speed of natural breathing taught by some world known experts. Developing of personal breathing skills should be balanced and move in the direction of both fast breathing (1-2 breathing cycles per second for a couple of minutes without discomfort), and slow breathing (1-2 breathing cycles per minute for a couple of minutes without discomfort.)

  1. Volume (Depth)

You should be aware of natural volume of your breathing, considering it as a medium rate, and develop your ability to breathe fully and deeply as well as shallowly. Consider the difference between speed and volume and so be able to change only one parameter.

  1. Effort

Not all the breathwork schools work with this parameter, and not all of them which do, explain or even understand what is behind this interesting tuning.

You can apply an effort to your inhale and exhale. The most beneficial technique is when you balance the opposites of efforts: make a forced inhale, and accompany it with the relaxed exhale, or make a forced exhale and use a relaxed soft inhale.

  1. Proportions

Natural breathing consists of 3 phases: inhale, exhale, natural pause. You can explore these proportions, and you can change them.  You also can eliminate your pause and go to ‘energy connected circular breathing’.   You also can play with pauses/holds/stops between the inhale and exhale and practice squares, triangles, rectangles and other shapes . You can put holds even during each phase – splitting inhales or exhales into portions and get more and more useful exercises. (Nature does it for us in a form of laughter or crying.) The professionals know effects which produce certain breath proportions.

 

In Russia there is a remarkable story of applying this very parameter, which helped the spacemen Nicolay Rukavishnikov save his crew’s lives.   During his spaceship landing some technical failure while braking occurred, and they were supposed to crash-land. No one from the Mission Control Center was able to give any advice.   Rukavishnikov recalled that in his preflight training he was taught the technique of calming down breathing.   The instructions were to work with the proportions of breath, making the exhale much longer than inhale. So he did, and after a while he got some brilliant idea which enabled them to land safely.  

  1. Breathing area

Usually all the schools and traditions teach 3 breathing areas, but call them with specific names, which sometimes contradict each other: belly, diaphragmatic, sides, ribs, clavicles and so on. Keeping in mind my idea of getting rid of any contradictions, I decided to use just neutral but obvious names – lower, middle and upper breathing area.   This parameter is the core of one of the most famous “full yoga breathing’. However, whereas everyone is ok with making inhale from the bottom to the top, there are different ideas for the exhale: one yoga school suggests making the exhale from the top to bottom (exhale first from the upper, then middle and lower are), the other yoga school suggests the opposite – exhale first from the lower breathing are, then middle, and the upper in the end. Once you know two possibilities, and realize that people from both schools are still alive and kicking – you might choose one method you like. And do not ignore the other for developing your mastery.

  1. Breathing channel

You might breathe through your nose or mouth, or switch your breathing between these two breathing channels. You also might experiment with switching your breathing between the two nostrils. Some Indian yoga schools reject mouth breathing in general and call it harmful. However the nature itself sometimes makes us breathing through the mouth – while yawning, laughing, crying, coughing etc.   Just remember 2 concepts – breath, which is a natural phenomenon and breathing which is a human conscious activity – and do not be afraid of practicing breathing exercises through your mouth, it might be beneficial or even necessary (providing you coordinate this parameter with other ones.)

  1. Sounds

You might breathe in a way, that produces some sounds, you might move the spot, where this sound comes from (e.g. at the nostrils, or in your throat) or you might switch to totally soft and silent breathing.

Parameters of breath regulated through the key of consciousness

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Similarly to music, where you have not a treble clef only but a bass clef too, in breathwork not only you can use your body parameters, but also your consciousness parameters.

There is one more list of 7 breathing parameters, regulated through the consciousness.

You might combine your breathing with the physical movements other than movements of breathing system muscles – all the martial arts schools and fitness schools do so.

Also you can apply images, words, colors (light and brightness), temperature (warm or coolness), in or out flow to your breath.

Also you can breathe through various parts of your body.

These parameters are fundamental for meditation, energy work, self-healing, spiritual practices as well as antistress breathing and self-development.

 

* * *

To make a structure of breathwork more comprehensive let me remind you about 3 groups of breathing practices and 2 breathing modes.

3 groups of breathing practices

It seems to me that all the possible breathing exercises and forms of breathwork can be divided into three groups:

  • Small Breathing Practices

Short breathing exercises consist of one breathing cycle and take from 1-2 to 5-10 seconds. Small practices are easy to carry out, they deliver quick results. You can find a hundred reasons to do a small breathing practice, and you can use them in any situation, in any posture (standing, sitting, lying, walking). You can do them alone or in public, without attracting any attention.

You probably wash your hands plenty of times every day as well as you wash up your cup after drinking tea. So, you should be doing many small breathing practices like that, every day to purify your body and mind.

  • Medium Breathing Practices

Medium breathing exercises involve several breaths and take from 10 seconds to a few minutes. They can deliver very remarkable results, like eliminating stress, becoming calm and peaceful if needed, or the opposite: energized and activated. You can use medium practices to reduce physical pain, rid yourself of irritation in a traffic jam or when your computer crashes! You can compare them to house cleaning, washing a floor, or taking a bath or a shower.

  • Large Breathing Practices

Long and deep breathing session are as follows: Rebirthing-Breathwork, Holotropic Breathwork, Sudarshan Kriya, Osho Chakra Breathing, Transformational Breath Sessions, and so on. It is like a deep cleaning which even the best housekeepers need to do once or twice a year. If you have no idea how to clean the cells and organs of your body, how to clear your emotions, your thoughts and your soul – then you need to master large breathing session.

2 breathing modes: Natural VS Regulated Breathing

And I also hope that you keep in mind the 2 breathing modes – natural and regulated breathing. The one is natural unconscious or reflexive, requiring no care or attention on our part, the other is when we consciously regulate our breathing.

This understanding helps to get rid of confusion about proper or correct breathing – you should see the difference between correct natural breathing, practice of breath awareness (observation of your breath) and thousands of breathing exercises in a regulated mode where you apply all your breathing parameters.

 

It is useful to know, what the qualities match a healthy natural breathing, and what possibilities are available to us when we regulate the breathing.

Many people miss the obvious fact that the ability to control our breath is an option granted to us by nature, in the same way that we can control our arms and legs. This idea might inspire those who never thought of practicing any breathing exercise to try some of them. It is the same when you learned to walk and you never said “oh, no, it is not for me.” Everything granted by nature is definitely for you, just start experimenting with it, exploring it – and you will become a master!

The advantages of this system

To sum up, I believe the advantages of this system are the following:

  • You will have a balance between understanding of breathwork and your intuition.
  • Breathwork can be presented to more pragmatic audience – a corporate world, state mass media.
  • You can assess your breathing skills, and your conclusion will be obvious to you and everyone else: whether you can regulate every parameter or not.
  • You can assess breathing skills of your students. In the first meeting it gives you clear understanding where to start from, and session by session you both can see the difference. Often some beginners find it difficult to breath fast, and after 3-4 sessions they become pretty good at fast breathing, some people unblock belly or chest, and as Leonard Orr said, we direct our practice to developing the ability to breathe «Fully and freely”.
  • You will know the impact of every parameter and their combinations. This is important for safety of your students, therefore you could adjust your training program to their needs depending on their health, age, life circumstances and so on.
  • You can invent your own breathing exercises and encourage your students to do so. Do not be surprised when they will come up with invention of ancient breathing techniques without any understanding of yoga, tantra, chi . My students often bring exercises which I used to learn at some high levels of schools teaching sacred knowledge – they just felt curious and inspired to breathe like that. Actually this is the way all the exercises had been invented.
  • When you find some new breathing technique you will understand it quickly and fully, sometimes even better than the person who presented it to you.
  • You will be more precise in your instructions to your students. Since 2010 I have been writing essays on all breathwork books published in Russian, and I recently found an author’s remark, that patients (it was a book about healing asthma) often get confused about the difference between big breathing and deep breathing.   No wonder! Anyone will be confused with general denominations without clear specific information. Instead of big or deep breathing you will give clear instructions to send breathing to the lower breathing area, which was the core of the exercise, mentioned in this book.
  • You will equip your students with all necessary tools to efficiently go through the large breathing practice like Rebirthing breathwork on self-bases approach.

With all my passion I believe that breathwork needs to become a part of our social life, of every human being daily life, and teaching it will become a recognized (traditional) profession, which sadly has no name for now. So we will be moving step by step.

 

If you are a breathwork professional:

  • you are welcome to download «7 parameters of breath» drawings and use them in your practice (use a request form or contact details below)
  • you are invited to send any relevant articles to be presented to the Russian audience
  • feel free to apply for giving a talk at the Russian International Breathwork Conference

If you are a helping professional:

  • you can use the program «Breathwork for helping professions», which includes basic theory for your understanding, best selection of exercises for your clients to be combined with your method, as well as useful practices for your personal recharging during your work.

If you are new to breathwork and want to get acquainted with it:

  • order an individual Skype session

Please use contact details below.

 

About the author:

 

Liubov Bogdanova (Luba Bogdanova) Liubov Bogdanova

Founder and managing director of International Centre of Conscious Breathing Studying and Practicing, Moscow, Russia

  • Passionate promoter of conscious breathing in Russia and Russian internet
  • Breathwork practitioner with 25 year experience in personal practice and 17 year experience in teaching groups and individuals
  • Has carried out exnended practice and traveled with Dan Brule – world-renowned teacher of breathmastery
  • Studied many breathwork techniques at the schools of Rebirhthing breathwork, Free breathing, Spiritual breathing, Vivation,  Pranic nourishment, Chi Kung, Art of Living, Yoga in Dance, Tantra, Russian author techniques.
  • Author of more than 30 training programs for the beginners, advanced students and practitioners.
  • Author of the book “Conscious breathing – Key to your life. Simple breathing exercises for health in body, emotions, mind and spirit”
  • Frequent local and national television guest
  • Organizer of International Russian Forum of Conscious Breathing in cooperation with IBF

 

Luba.bogdanova@gmail.com

+7 903 117 36 63

http://odyhanie.ru

https://lubabogdanova.ru

http://rebirthing.ru

 

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© 2013-2020, Liubov Bogdanova

 

ИП Богданова Л.Б.
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