________________
Exhale slowly, releasing the upper chest first. Relax the rest of the ribcage back to the normal position. Continue for a few more breaths. Change back to normal breathing and end the practice.
There is no need to practise shoulder breathing on its own. Just practise it long enough to be able to perform it in combination with yogic breathing.
Clavicular Action
Active
Relaxed
Zneck
expanded
clavicle
sternum
BSY
Paradoxical breathing The gasping breath or the paradoxical breath is another method of breathing outside the domain of the three natural methods of breathing. It manifests when the need to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system is most intense. One inhales so deeply and quickly that the abdominal wall moves in during inhalation rather than out. This is what occurs in a state of shock. For example, if one takes an ice-cold shower on a winter morning the mouth will probably open and suck air in with a gasp at the first contact with the water.
This is called paradoxical breathing because the abdominal wall moves in rather than out during inhalation, and out rather than in during exhalation. Paradoxical breathing stimulates the sympathetic nervous system even more than thoracic breathing. If one were to breathe in this way for
172
