Yin and Yang Breathing

     While I was reading Richard Wolf's book In Tune: Music as the Bridge to Mindfulness, I was noticing that the majority of his exercises described breaths which are controlled and regulated by the mind.  I know there are schools of thought in which controlling the breath can produce certain mental states and that can be very useful for many people.

     For someone like me, however, I find that I need to let go of controlled, "yang" breathing techniques at times because I have control-freak tendencies to begin with and these techniques just reinforce that, I believe.  I need to balance that with times when I just allow my body to breathe at its own pace and watch that breath.  It's a challenge for someone like me to be "yin" and just allow the body to breathe without my interference!  Once I start observing my breath, I find that I have to be very careful not to start controlling when the next breath comes.  It's a good challenge, though.

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)