THE MIRACLE BREATH

The breathing technique known as The Cooling Breath has an incredible feature. It has the immediate benefit of expanding lung volume effortlessly. It is a technique that originates in Yoga where it is said to have a calming effect. After delving once again into the benefits of different breath exercises, I found significant success with The Cooling Breath (I call it the Curled Tongue Breath) so much so that I decided to write an article describing its benefits.
Update: Upon using this breathing technique extensively recently, I have discovered some exciting and dramatic new results. See the "Advanced Techniques" section at the end of this article.

This method requires curling your tongue lengthwise. Not everyone can do this. If you are one of those, not to worry. It simply means this method isn't available to you.

There is something remarkable that happens when you inhale through a curled tongue. The action of the curling seems to trigger a physical release, more properly described as a lack of tension response. With most exertion there is a subconscious response to resist. This is especially true with breath exercise. As we perform the exercise we encounter tension at the largest expansion of the chest. That tension can be difficult to break through. For some reason the curled tongue approach sidesteps that resistance. The result is that the body allows the breath to progress deeper into the interior of the abdomen. This happens automatically and without effort or tension.

Exercise Instructions:

The exercise can be practiced on its own while resting or you can use the technique while you are in the midst of action.
  • ​Purse your lips like you are about to whistle.
  • Curl the sides of your tongue inward so it looks like a straw and point it through your mouth.
  • Breathe in across the tongue using a sucking sound.
  • At the height of the inhalation, relax your tongue and mouth, keeping the lips open as you exhale slowly letting the tension in the mouth unwind and release.
  • I perform the breath either one time or 3 times.
  • Take a moment between breaths to relax. 
  • Beware of hyperventilating. Do not stand immediately after.

Uses and Benefits

We can take advantage of the unique release this breath provides. One wonderful use is to perform the breath exercise at the height of a stretch. Real progress can be made in loosening chronically tense muscles. Here are a few suggestions. I am certain you can think up many of your own. Be careful trying these exercises out. You should be warmed up before experimenting. Anything involving the spine should be practiced gently.

Stretches: Using the curled tongue method while stretching has amazing results. You just should try it to see for yourself.
  • Stand against the wall with your arms straightened out above your head and resting on the wall. Take 3 curled tongue breaths. Notice where the movement occurs as you inhale. If your arms bother you, stop.
  • Stretch the front of the rib cage: Sit toward the middle of the chair, tilt forward while holding onto the back of the chair. You should feel a stretch across the front of the collarbones. Take 3 curled breaths.
  • Spiral stretch: Sitting with the legs apart, knees over ankles, elbows on knees, spine straight and head in line with your spine, take the right shoulder forward and extend the right arm out and over toward the left. Take one curled breath as you stretch. As you inhale take the right arm and reach up instead of out, keeping the other elbow on its knee. Take another curled breath while reaching up.
  • Hamstring stretch: Either seated or standing, stretch the back of your leg and hold with your foot fully flexed if sitting or with the back heel down on the ground if you are standing. Take a curled breath as you are holding the stretch.

Strength building exercise: It is also helpful to use this breath while efforting. It helps the body find the most streamlined path to take and strengthens that path, a very desirable result.
  • Practicing standing on one foot (while holding on with one hand): As you concentrate on holding your balance, keeping the knee relaxed, take a curled tongue breath and notice the effect it has on your stability.
  • While doing abdominals: As you inhale through a curled tongue, pull your abdomen in. Reverse the order: Inhale through a curled tongue, relax your abdomen. As you release the air through a relaxed exhale, pull your abdomen in.

It is important to understand that improving the breathing process, while establishing amazing health benefits also releases long held toxins into the blood stream. This may temporarily make you feel under the weather as the toxins circulate ultimately out of the body. This is one reason exercise is often associated with discomfort, particularly during the beginning stages.

Advanced technique utilizing the Curled Tongue Breath:

I have discovered a new and revolutionary yet gentle process to use which can result in an internal release of chronically tight musculature in any area of the body, especially the rib cage.

The rib cage is often persistently tight, the front in particular. Extended sitting and slouching, anxiety and even cold temperatures cause us to contract the chest resulting in shallow breathing, ending up where we receive less oxygen and remove less carbon dioxide. Less nourishment and more toxicity leads to poorer health outcomes.

Persistent chest tension is traditionally very hard to relax. It is a kind of tension that is very common among those older, partly because we are less active and partly because the tension has been present a longer period of time. For myself, some curvature of the spine contributes to the condition. Certainly the anxiety of the pernicious pandemic that we are in the midst of plays a huge part in chest tightening as well. ​The insidiousness of the chronic condition is one reason this breathing technique is so powerful.
Since the Curled Tongue Breath has the unusual effect of disabling the normal chronic tension response, we can use its beneficial effect and enhance it using this advanced process.
  • ​Take a Curled Tongue breath, feeling where the breath travels to in the body. Notice where the breath takes you to that is new and easy and softened. 
  • With another Curled Tongue breath, notice where you feel tension in your body as you inhale. Maybe it is in the front of the rib cage, the throat, the neck, the shoulders, the belly, your hip. It could be anywhere. 
  • Wherever the tension is, after inhaling, take tiny breaths and gently push against the tension, softly cajoling it to release. A massage from the inside out. The deep relaxation that can result is quite surprising considering how little effort is needed to receive this benefit.

I have noticed a deepening of my own breathing cycle from practicing this. Whenever I feel uncomfortable, in pain, irritable or just tense I will take these described steps with amazing results. It is the type of exercise that requires a willingness to become more aware. That takes time but the benefits can be enormous.

You have to practice these techniques on a regular basis to
generate and then retain significant benefits.

The secret to successful aging is all about awareness. If you are willing to put the time and energy into that process then your older years will become incredibly satisfying beyond what they are today. But it takes a certain motivation that many of us do not have. I am very fortunate to have trained extensively in physical awareness with commensurate success in aging well through movement.

The Curled Tongue breath exercise is terrific to use while taking the Building Better Balance DVD classes. Once during each exercise you could perform the curled tongue breath. The benefits would be greatly increased and these DVD classes are already especially valuable. Particularly during the days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Being at home all the time can be boring but it can also lead to health decline because it is so easy to get less active. Our balance suffers. Our self confidence declines. We become weaker and more irritable. Take these balance classes and improve your abilities instead of them going in the other direction. They help with tension too as is the goal of this breath exercise. An excellent combination.

Published November 19, 2020
Updated December 11, 2020