Gagging

The last of the daily exercises deals with the throat and diaphragm. This is done in the shower. It can be done at the sink, but it is best done in the shower.

The exercise is gagging. Before you gag at the thought of gagging, realize that in the morning there is nothing in the stomach. The gag will not cause any food to come up from the stomach since there is no food in the stomach to come up. [note: If you have any physical pain of any nature, then do not do it.]

This is the most difficult exercise to do properly. It is easy to do it improperly. This exercise involves breathing, gagging, and not closing the throat.

Some people have no problem with gagging, others regard it as so abhorrent that they can not even consider it. Courage! It won't hurt you no matter what. If it were not a very very beneficial exercise I could have just not mentioned it and no one would be the wiser. But it is both beneficial and, once you learn to do it, will start your day with an alertness and sense of presence which no other thing can even approach. Believe me or not, you will come to enjoy it greatly; the resulting sense of aliveness is powerful.

One: Breathing

The breath should be continuous, inhale then exhale then inhale. Think of it like a pendulum. You know how when the pendulum reaches the end of the swing to one side it immediately starts the swing to the other side. Back and forth with no pauses. That is the way the breathing should be. The inhale causes the exhale which causes the inhale. I will discuss this at length later in Part One of this book.

This continuous inhale and exhale is not panting. The breath should be as deep (using both belly and chest breathing) as you are able to make it and it is neither rapid nor overly slow (controlled). It is simply a natural deep breath at a natural speed.

Two: Gagging

Gagging: the gag may be produced by any one of three things. They are: (1) pressure on the back of the tongue, (2) tickling the little bit of tissue that hangs down in the back of your mouth (the uvula), or (3) touching the back of the throat. Some people find that sticking out the tongue helps in the process.

Gagging is a reflex. Just let your body do its thing. Don't work to cause it like trying to make it happen and, of course, don't try to stop it. Remember there is nothing in the stomach so you don't have to be concerned with bad smells or ugly liquid coming up.

The induction of the gag reflex works with the breathing. On the exhale try to induce a gag, on the inhale pull your fingers to the front of the mouth so there is no induction. So it is: exhale fingers in, inhale fingers out. This is shown below in Figure 12. In the left photograph he is exhaling so his fingers are in, on the right photograph he is inhaling so his fingers are out.

Figure 12

Many people have a strong aversion to gagging. This comes from being sick as a child and feeling helpless and dependent and not getting the mothering you needed at the time. Throwing up can be strongly connected to being helpless, being dependent, being alone, being ill, being abandoned, even with having to take care of someone else when you hated the smell.

The purpose of this work is to improve yourself and that means correcting the inappropriate residue of childhood. If you have this strong aversion to gagging from childhood, that only means that there is more work to do. It is not a reason to skip this exercise.

Three: The Throat

One more point before I get to the hard part, the throat. The exercise should be done standing upright, not bent at the waist. It is fine to lean a bit forward and brace yourself with a hand against the wall, but don't do it bent over.

Now the throat. If you have the breathing part down ( rhythmic) and you have the fingers in the mouth part worked out (back on the exhale, forward on the inhale), the next part is the throat. Here we are after one big objective: NO SOUND! Most people when they do a voluntary gag close their throat when the gag reflex occurs. They produce a strong sound such as "ugh", or "gug" or the like. THIS IS WRONG! The gag should be allowed to proceed with an open throat. There should be no sound with the gag or rather the only allowed sound is a soft "uh" that may occur with the gag.

Again, no food is going to come up from the stomach. This exercise can cause your eyes to water, cause the production of lots of slimly saliva (that is, not watery), cause you to want to blow you nose (it is a wonderful exercise for clearing the sinuses), cause your body to tremble. Whatever happens, trust it. Allow it. It is the wisdom of the body.

Don't overdo this exercise. Three minutes is more than enough or up to about five gag reflexes. Keep in mind the standards of the exercise (breathe, fingers, throat) and don't push yourself. If you can do it right the first day, fine. If it takes you a year to get it and have the gag reflex with an open throat, also fine. Your body knows what is best. Trust it and just keep working to improve.