B.E.T. Exercise 6

Equalizing the flow

This exercise comes from a teacher by the name of Tarthan Tulku, who has a system called Kum Nye relaxation. This exercise will heighten your inner sensitivity. It will cause you to fine tune your awareness. And it will put you into a soft, focused, meditative state of relaxation.

You can breathe in and out of the nose. You can breathe in and out of the mouth. You can switch back and forth. This exercise calls for dividing the stream of air, and allowing half the air to go in and out the nose, and half the air to go in and out the mouth. By playing with the soft palate, the back of your tongue and throat, you can locate a valve like reflex, responsible for closing off one or the other passage.

The game is to explore this valve/reflex. Take a few breaths in and out the nose. Then switch to breathing through the mouth. Notice how you control it, and what you do to adjust to accomplish the switching of passages. Zero in on the technique, and then fine tune the adjustment so that it sounds and feels like the air stream is flowing equally through both passages simultaneously.

The mouth is a bigger whole than the nostrils, so when both passages are open and free, more air will travel in and out of the mouth, and the narrow passages of the nose will create resistance and so less air will naturally pass in and out of the nostrils. Play with your teeth and tongue to limit the airflow through the mouth, in effect creating an opening that is the same size as the nasal passage. Then you will find the balance and be able to equalize the flow.

Once you have found the balance and have equalized the flow, play with speed and volume. Experiment with deep slow breaths, fast shallow breaths. Then settle back to a quiet natural rhythm, a smooth even flow.