How Is Breathing Different in Dahn Yoga?

One aspect of Dahn Yoga that distinguishes it from everyday physical exercise is its practice of breathing. In particular, the breathing practiced in Dahn Yoga is not merely the simple or basic breathing that transpires through the exchange of gases including carbon dioxide and oxygen, but ki energy breathing. Dahn Yoga’s “Level Up” system itself is designed to follow the depth of breathing performed at each level.

Any newly enrolled Dahn Yoga member will receive the following teaching from an instructor: “First, you have to release congested energy from your chest through chest breathing.” If your chest feels heavy, tight, or congested, if your head is hot, or if you tend to be easily affected by stress, it is because the energy in your chest is blocked, which causes impairment of the overall energy circulation of the body.

That is why you start with chest breathing first by expelling blocked energy out through your mouth and fingertips to open up the energy pathways, or meridians. In this way, when the energy pathways are opened and your energy “sense” is enhanced, your breathing gradually becomes deeper and you can feel energy sweeping in waves like a tide deep into your dahnjon, the energy center in your lower belly, and accumulating there.

Read more about the deep energy breathing of Dahn Yoga.

A Voyage to Meet the Ocean of Life

Though it sounds macabre, the fact that we are actually living between birth and death, and death is all that is left after birth, cannot be refuted or ignored. We ordinarily do not ponder such thoughts, but since everyone inevitably faces death, it seems wise and even necessary to acknowledge and clarify the issue in advance. Rather than focusing on death, however, the whole purpose of this undertaking (no pun intended) is really to help us make more of the life we have now.

Illusion about life and death Most people have preconceptions and misconceptions about death that also include inaccurate illusions and fear. For instance, most people shiver with dread when they think of the body stiffening and being buried in a dark coffin amidst bugs and worms.

But such a misconception is formed by thought processes centered on the body – that your body is “you” even after you die. But after you die, your body is no longer “yours;” it is a chunk of meat with no consciousness and no different from removable clothing. Identifying with your body prevents you from differentiating between the physical body and the soul, the real you.


Read more about the issue of life and death.

Minister of Dykes & Dredges

If you have tinnitus, frequent colds, or shortness of breath; food retention issues like bloating and heartburn; water retention and reproductive organ problems; or are hypersensitive or overly vigilant, check out your Triple Heater Meridian. How can one meridian affect all these areas?

Known also as the Triple Energizer, this independent Yang energy system governs respiration, digestion, and elimination. Paired with the pericardium meridian and associated with not one but multiple organs, it incorporates multidimensional energy functions: the transformation, purification, and distribution of air, food, and water within three levels of the body. The upper heater is from the tongue base to the diaphragm; the middle encompasses the diaphragm to the navel; the lower is the navel to lower abdomen.

Check details of the Triple Heater Meridian.

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