Ocean Breathing / Victorious Breathing
In this exercise, I generate sounds in my head similar to cyclical ocean waves. The exercise improves my ability to relax and reduces my thought intensity.
The way I exercise ‘ocean breathing’
- Breathing: exclusive through the nose.
- Position: I sit comfortably with a straight back, relax my tongue and jaw, and close my eyes.
- Reset my breathing.
- Inhale in 3 parts.
- 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 ‘air hunger start.’
- Inhale in 3 parts, generating no sounds.
- Repeat for a few rounds.
Remarks
It’s tricky to control the air passage in the throat to get the right effect, so a bit of 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 a bit like whispering the sounds of ocean waves with a closed mouth.
There are versions of these exercises where the inhaling is also audible. However, I found that audible inhalations don’t relax me, so I inhale silently.
The breath hold serves as an indication. If I exhale slowly enough, once holding my breath, I should rapidly reach ‘air hunger start.’
I don’t have a particular count but I try to prolong my exhale.