Most of the discussions on spirituality and religion are mostly theory and talk but not on the practical, i.e. the how-to.
I believe the effectiveness of one’s breath is one of the critical foundation of one’s well being and spirituality.
One measure of effectiveness of one’s breath is ‘How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?’ i.e. the art of breath retention.
There are two measurements of breath retention, i.e.
- Normal Retention Period - NRP
- Maximum Retention Period - MRP
1. Normal Retention Period - NRP
To measure [time] one’s Normal Retention Period - NRP, do the following;
- Get ready a stop watch with seconds
- Sit up straight
- Do two of your usual breathing - inhale-exhale
- Then, inhale on the next breath follow by exhalation - normally.
- At the end of the normal exhalation*, used your finger to close the nose and close the mouth, *[not a 100% full exhaustion of all air]
- Start your time
- At a point where you feel the urge the need to breathe, do not struggle on…
- Stop the time.
- Note the period of time - NRP
Note:
One need to measure one’s NRP over various period of the day to get an average. Avoid doing it after a full meal or any time after what is not-your-normal activities.
The NRP measure your basic well-being and spirituality.
[list=]If your NRP time is below 30 seconds, your well-being and spirituality is below average.
If 31-60 seconds, that is average,
If >60 seconds, that would be above average and and good.[/list]
It is claimed there is a correlation [no hard proofs] those with NRP below 30 seconds [especially if less than 10 seconds] usually has some kind of impairments, e.g. asthma, heart disease, lungs and other diseases.
The above would be the same for one’s level of spirituality in general.
One can claim to have the highest grade in spirituality [talk only] but one’s NRP measurement can generally [note] indicate one’s real spiritual maturity level.
2. Maximum Retention Period - MRP
The MRP is the time achieved by extending the NRP to the point one cannot hold the breath any longer and thus forced to breath or else one would black-out.
The MRP can extend to >60 seconds, 2 minutes or for the professional deep diver it can be >3, 4,5 minutes. The world record is something like 7+ minutes without assistance, 11+ minutes with additional packing, 22 minutes via breathing air concentrated with oxygen.
Since we are concern with only basic spirituality, the relevant measurement is the Normal Retention Period -NRP.
In normal situation, the NRP is taken to be 50% the MRP.
Note the NRP and MRP are not exclusive measurement of spirituality, but also well being and other physical abilities. E.g. athletes and other non-spiritual performers may have high NRP, e.g. freedivers, singers, and the likes.
Try the above measurements to determine your underlying basic spirituality.
I can provide tips [if interested] on how to increase one’s NRP or MRP.
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