As if not breathing

In this exercise, I slow my breathing drastically and breathe diaphragmatically to maximum amplitude, add smiles, eliminate the breath-holds (circular breathing), and aim to breathe so slowly that I feel on the edge of air-hunger, wanting to draw more air. An observer looking at my abdomen should find it difficult to detect my breathing, even though my diaphragm is engaged at maximum amplitude. I like to call it ‘breathing as if not breathing,’ or in short, ‘as if not breathing.’

Synchronizing breathing, mantra recitation, facial expressions, and visualization stages in ‘as if not breathing.’

After a period of exercising, I hold my breath as a control measure. If my breathing is slow enough, I should rapidly reach ‘air-hunger start.’ If I don’t reach it immediately, it’s an indication to slow down my breathing even further.

Since I breathe to maximum diaphragm amplitude every time, the volumes across the cycles remain approximately the same. Here, my minute ventilation is solely controlled by my breathing speed. The tempo of my mantra recitation regulates, and thus slows down, my breathing speed.