Beware of hyperventillation.

There have been cases of people attending breathing courses in which they found themselves hyperventilating.

Since hyperventillation can cause numbness, light-headedness, headache, chest pains as well as other undesirable symptoms due to the increased concentration of oxygen and the resulting reduction of carbon dioxide in the blood to below its normal level, it cannot be good for us because this would cause the blood to be more alkaline, a change in its ph, and this results in the constriction of blood vessels to the brain. The transport of essential electrolytes to the muscles and the nerves there will be reduced, thus affecting their performance.

To prevent hyperventillation, we ought to find out what is wrong with our actions. Are we breathing too fast or too deeply although we have not done a hundred metre dash in which too much oxygen has been expended and there is an urgent need to replenish it.

I noticed that certain participants of breathing courses do breathe too fast and too deeply. In fact, we can hear the breathe being expelled and inhaled too vigorously. such participants can reach the stage where they are hyperventillating.

In telling you about the right way to breathe, it is not merely stomach breathing but also slow gentle inhaling and exhaling. Do not take a train journeys and 'choo-choo' along at speed. It ought to be so gentle that others can hardly hear your breathe unless they pay particular attention to it.

At this point, I remember being in India in August last year where some of the Malaysian Art of Living members were doing the Kriya (a method of breathing) and our Guruji, Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, told some of us that we were breathing too hard. In fact, very often, we are told to stick to the number of times we breathe for each cycle in the home kriya. I believe that if we exceed the times for each cycle, then we get into the danger of hyperventillating.

In any art or practice, the right method to do it is of utmost importance. All of us can and do make mistakes in learning. That is part of life; making mistakes, understanding where it is wrong and correcting it. however, once we realise our mistakes, it is never too late to correct them. That is progress; and to improve, we have to progress.