Too much can’t be said about the advantages attending the practice of the Complete Breath. And yet, the student who has carefully read the foregoing pages should scarcely need to have pointed out to him such advantages.
The practice of the Complete Breath will make any man or woman immune to consumption and other pulmonary troubles, and will do away with all likelihood of contracting “colds,” as well as bronchial and similar weaknesses. Consumption is principally due to lowered vitality, attributable to an insufficient amount of air being inhaled. The impairment of vitality renders the system open to attacks from disease germs. Imperfect breathing allows a considerable part of the lungs to remain inactive, and such portions offer an inviting field for bacilli which, invading the weakened tissue, soon produce havoc. Good, healthy lung tissue will resist the germs, and the only way to have good healthy lung tissue is to use the lungs properly.
Consumptives are nearly all narrow-chested. What does this mean? Simply that these people are addicted to improper habits of breathing, and consequently their chests failed to develop and expand. The man who practices the Complete Breath will have a full, broad chest, and the narrow-chested man may develop his chest to normal proportions if he will but adopt this mode of breathing. Such people must develop their chest cavities if they value their lives. Colds may often be prevented by practicing a little vigorous Complete Breathing whenever you feel that you are being unduly exposed. When chilled, breathe vigorously a few minutes, and you’ll feel a glow all over your body. Most colds can be cured by Complete Breathing and partial fasting for a day.
The quality of the blood depends largely upon its proper oxygenation in the lungs; if under-oxygenated, it becomes poor in quality and laden with all sorts of impurities, and the system suffers from a lack of nourishment, and often becomes actually poisoned by the waste products remaining in the blood. As the entire body, every organ and every part, is dependent upon the blood for nourishment, impure blood must have a serious effect upon the entire system. The remedy is plain—practice the Yogi Complete Breath.
The stomach and other organs of nutrition suffer greatly from improper breathing. Not only are they ill nourished by a lack of oxygen, but as the food must absorb oxygen from the blood and become oxygenated before it can be digested and assimilated, it’s easy to see how digestion and assimilation are impaired by incorrect breathing. And when assimilation is abnormal, the system receives less and less nourishment, the appetite fails, bodily vigor decreases, energy diminishes, and the body withers and declines—all from a lack of proper breathing.
Even the nervous system suffers from improper breathing, inasmuch as the brain, the spinal cord, the nerve centers, and the nerves themselves, when improperly nourished by means of the blood, become poor and inefficient instruments for generating, storing, and transmitting the nerve currents. And if sufficient oxygen is not absorbed through the lungs, they’ll become improperly nourished. There is another aspect of the case whereby the nerve currents themselves, or rather the force from which the nerve currents spring, becomes lessened from want of proper breathing, but this belongs to another phase of the subject, which is treated in other chapters of this book; our purpose here is to direct your attention to the fact that the mechanism of the nervous system is rendered inefficient as an instrument for conveying nerve force as the indirect result of a lack of proper breathing.
The effect of the reproductive organs upon the body’s general health is too well known to be discussed at length here, but we will say that, with the reproductive organs in a weakened condition, the entire system feels the reflex action and suffers sympathetically. The Complete Breath produces a rhythm which is Nature’s own plan for keeping this important part of the system in normal condition, and, from the first, you’ll notice that the reproductive functions are strengthened and vitalized, thus, by sympathetic reflex action, giving tone to your whole bodily system. By this, we do not mean that the lower sex impulses will be aroused; far from it. Yogis are actually advocates of continence and chastity, and have learned to control the “animal passions.” But sexual control does not mean sexual weakness, and the Yogic teachings state that the man or woman whose reproductive organs are normal and healthy will have a stronger will with which to control him- or herself. The Yogi believes that much of the perversion of this wonderful part of the system comes from a lack of normal health, and results from a morbid rather than a normal condition of these organs. A little careful consideration of this question will prove that the Yogi teachings are right. This is not the place to discuss the subject fully, but the Yogis know that sex energy may be conserved and used for the development of the body and mind of the individual, instead of being dissipated in unnatural excesses, as is the wont of so many uninformed people. By special request, we’ll include here one of the most popular Yogi exercises for this purpose. But whether or not the student wishes to adopt the Yogi theories of continence and clean living, he or she will find that the Complete Breath will do more to restore health to this part of the system than anything else ever tried. Remember, now, we mean normal health, not undue development. The sensualist will find that normal means a lessening of desire, rather than an increase; the weakened man or woman will find a toning up and a relief from the weakness which has heretofore depressed him or her. We do not wish to be misunderstood or misquoted on this subject. The Yogi’s ideal is a body strong in all its parts, under the control of a masterful and developed Will, animated by high ideals.
In the practice of the Complete Breath, during inhalation, the diaphragm contracts and exerts a gentle pressure upon the liver, stomach, and other organs, which, in connection with the rhythm of the lungs, acts as a gentle massage of these organs and stimulates their actions, encouraging normal functioning. Each inhalation aids in this internal exercise and assists in causing normal circulation to the organs of nutrition and elimination. In High or Mid Breathing, the organs lose the benefit accrued from this internal massage.
The Western world is paying much attention to Physical Culture just now, which is a good thing. But in their enthusiasm, they must not forget that the exercise of the external muscles is not everything. The internal organs also need exercise, and Nature’s plan for this exercise is proper breathing. The diaphragm is Nature’s principal instrument for this internal exercise. Its motion vibrates the important organs needed for good nutrition and elimination, and massages and kneads them at each inhalation and exhalation, forcing blood into them and then squeezing it out, and generally toning the organs. Any organ or part of the body which is not exercised gradually atrophies and refuses to function properly, and lack of the internal exercise afforded by the diaphragmatic action leads to diseased organs. The Complete Breath gives the proper motion to the diaphragm, as well as exercising the middle and upper chest. It is indeed “complete” in its actions.
From the standpoint of Western physiology alone, without reference to the Oriental philosophies and sciences, this Yogic system of Complete Breathing is of vital importance to every man, woman, and child who wishes to acquire good health and keep it. Its very simplicity keeps thousands from seriously considering it, while they spend fortunes in seeking optimal health through complicated and expensive “systems.” Health knocks at their door, and they don’t answer. Verily, the stone which the builders reject is the real cornerstone of the Temple of Health.
—Ramacharaka, Yogi (William Walker Atkinson) The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath.