Geo-Science Writer
Today I visited zen temple in Kamakua again with my friend, and joined two zazen (zen meditation) sessions in a row, meaning that it went for a couple of hours, followed by an hour session of preaching by the zen master. During each of the zazen session, I doing a deep and slow abodominal breathing as I usually do by counting a number of breaths I made. Today I exhaled about 33 times over 20-miute-long meditation period (each session contains two zen meditation period, each spanning for 20 minutes, separated by a short break, and the latter session is followed by reciting a chant with a zazen master).
After all the above sessions were over, I felt vigorated as if my lungs are inhaling only 100 % pure oxygen for hours. I was wondering why it worked so well, even though I have heard a lot of stories about the benefit of deep abdominal breathing as the motivation coach Anthony Robbins suggests in his books and videos. When I was doing a bit of research on this topic, I found the above video. Apparently deep abdominal breathing, whether it is at a meditation session or not, has a significant benefit not only for physical health but also for mental health. Certainly meditation adds more (and spiritual) benefit to this.
Shuji
Posted on Saturday 16 June 2012