A, B, Cs of Ki Breathing

I got a great lesson last night before class, while eavesdropping on a conversation.

A student was explaining to sensei his difficulties with the out-breath during ki breathing. He had said that it comes out too quickly. Sensei then grabbed a flyer nearby and asked him to read the contents with one breath. Bingo! It worked. He easily read the contents of the flyer in what amounted to about a 15 second out-breath. Sensei said that it was easier because his ki was now focused.

A light went on in my cavernous skull.

So last night, before going to bed, I experimented. I sang my A,B,Cs (you can also try Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) with one breath. Pretty easy. I then tried breathing out without the singing, but with the beat of the song and words in my head. I found that I was able to hold the last note of "me ...," for a number of seconds (breathing out, of course). On the in breath, you can do the same. As expected, it was a little more difficult to finish the "song", but I did notice an improvement with the evenness of my breath. As it turns out, after timing myself, I "sing" the song at 60 beats per minute. So the entire song takes approx. 24 seconds (don't rush!). And since I continued beyond the last note, my out-breath was more like 30 seconds! I don't normally time my breaths, so I'm not sure what improvement I had in that area, but it did feel as though my breath was easier. Perhaps it was the focus. On one occasion, I nearly finished the "song" a second time with one out-breath!

Just thought I'd share something that may help someone focus their intent during breathing. Let me know if you've tried this and if it helped or not.

thanks,
Adam