Ocean Breathing / Victorious Breathing
In this exercise, I aurally visualize sounds similar to cyclical ocean waves. The exercise improves my ability to relax and reduces my thought intensity.
How I exercise ‘ocean breathing’:
Directives:
- I sit comfortably with a straight back, relax my tongue and jaw, and close my eyes.
- Reset my breathing if needed.
- Breathe, as in 3-part breathing, exclusively through the nose.
- Inhale in 3 parts (generating no sounds).
- Exhale slowly with sealed lips while tightening the throat muscles and opening the throat channel so that the movement of the exhaled air starts to resonate in my ears.
- Hold my breath until I gently reach the point of ‘air hunger start.’
- Repeat for a few rounds.
It’s tricky to control the air passage in the throat to get the right effect, so some practice is needed. The sounds generated resemble the sounds of light snoring.
When I first learned this exercise, I exhaled from my mouth as if trying to dampen a glass. I then sealed my lips and continued to exhale through the nose, tongue resting on the floor of my mouth. Finally, to get a louder sound resonating in my head, I yawned with a closed mouth. It’s similar to imitating the sounds of ocean waves with a closed mouth.
There are versions of this exercise where the inhaling is also audible. However, I noticed that replacing the audible inhalations with silent ones affected me better.
The breath-hold allows indication. If I exhale slowly enough, post the breath-hold I reach ‘air hunger start’ more rapidly. I don’t time my exhale but rather try to prolong it.