Float Tanks to Refine Your Breathing?

While I was in San Diego the other week I finally went to a sensory deprivation tank.

Been meaning to try one of those out for a long time and finally I did.

For those that haven’t experienced or heard about these you get into a pitch black tank float naked in heavily salted warm water.

There is no light.

There is no sound.

There is no real feeling (the air and water are the same temperature so you don’t even really feel much difference between those).

It can be quite meditative.

Also it’s great for relaxing the muscles, especially since Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) is what is used to make you float.

While inside I engaged in a number of breathing exercises.

One of the exercises I really began to experiment with was Feldenkrais breathing.

This was an idea I picked up from reading on of his books, where you can focus on the movement of breathing in a much more refined way than in just about any breathing exercise.

And with all the other senses gone I could feel the air enter the nostrils…

Feel it move down the back of the throat…

Feel it enter and expand into the lungs…

And do this over and over again.

That’s one of the things I love about breathing exercises. You can go really deep with them, in more ways than one.

Fritz Perls used to say, “Lose your mind and come to your senses.”

And breathing in this way allows you to refine and expand those senses.
Ultimately, I think that by doing so you’ll gain far greater control of your body which can then be used in a number of ways.

• Strength
• Endurance
• Relaxation
• Meditation

And more. The breath is one of the keys to getting there.

If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, make sure to grab Upgrade Your Breathing here.

And if you have picked it up and read at least part of it, please comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Just got this in from Willem yesterday. ” I like upgrade your breath btw. I recognise a lot of it since I am familiar with yoga and chi kung, but this book does a great job of demystifying the issue and bringing it all together. It certainly inspired me to make breathing a bigger part of my training.”