Erik Peper, Respiration & Health
How we breathe is intimately connected to our state of health. We can speed up breathing to energize or slow it for a calming effect. Practice becoming more aware of the speed and depth of your breathing. Breathing diaphragmatically at 6 to 7 breaths per minute is regenerative. Breathing patterns alter physiological, psychological, and emotional processes. Conscious regulation of breathing can improve asthma, panic disorder and many other conditions. A simple change in breathing can induce symptoms or resolve them. Learn to observe breath-holding. Devices like Stress Eraser and Em-Wave teach healthy breathing at home. When we start taking charge there’s more hope. Focus on skills not pills.
Erik Peper, Mastery Through Conscious Breathing Practices
In this interview of Dr. Erik Peper, we discuss the power of Tumo breathing. This form of conscious breathing has been studied by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard and many other Western researchers. It is a special form of conscious respiration that increases metabolic rate and allows Buddhist monks and others who practice it to prove to themselves that they can use their minds to alter physiology. The value of such intense practices is that they allow us to gain mastery and the absolute knowledge that we have the ability to exert voluntary control over mental and physiological processes. Most Buddhist practices lead to the possibility of gaining a certain degree of mastery of consciousness.
