Joyous Breath & Vital Capacity

Reading The Vital Force has provided much appreciated insight on various movements, but there has been little on Joyous Breath. Maybe it is because most other movements are similarly focused on circular motions emphasizing the hands to balance the substantial or insubstantial position of the legs. We do not focus on breathing, rather just let it happen naturally as our legs yin and yang.

Early on I did not notice the circularity in Joyous Breath. Eventually, with my lungs filling and emptying like the forceful ebb and flow of the tide, it became beautifully apparent: my breathing itself that was circular. My lungs went through a circular motion, “yinning” and “yanging,” as they expanded and contracted. Intrigued because 40 years as a scuba and free diver has led to learning plenty about breathing, I thought about some relevant connections. Perhaps they also suggest why I had such an immediate smile when my instructor, Sheryl Adair, first taught this to me.

In practicing Joyous Breath, Justin advises that “this is the only movement that has some force to it…pulling breath in, in a very strong manner…letting the breath out slowly and after the fourth time you should be out of breath.” Justin prompts us to have maximum inhalation and also maximum exhalation. Doctors and scientists call this our vital capacity, the maximum amount of air we can breathe in and out, and they often measure this to diagnose underlying lung diseases. But we only a small amount of our vital capacity during normal breathing (also known as tidal breathing). In the average adult, tidal breathing uses only 10 percent of our vital capacity; the remaining 90% of the air in our lungs is somewhat stagnant and laden with carbon dioxide.

When we practice Joyous Breath, we exchange stagnant air for fresh air and immediately help our respiratory process in increasing the flow of oxygen to our tissues. Oxygen builds the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which some enlightened scientists speculate is related to storing Chi. So with Joyous Breath we help our body accumulate more energy – internal energy we call Chi – which in turn betters our health and wellbeing.

In one online T’ai Chi Chih video, Justin states that some people like to practice Joyous Breath as the initial movement, and that is fine with him. I personally like to do this. My vital capacity is full of sweet fresh air for the rest of the movements, and I have an immediate smile on my face. It is indeed a Joyous Breath.