Reverse breathing

Lets say I am going to walk 50 meters with a bucket in each hand. If the buckets are empty then this task is no challenge – I walk pretty much as I would walk empty-handed. But if the buckets are full of water then it is a different matter. Firstly I have to adjust my posture, especially my lower back, otherwise the weight will damage me, then I have to walk slowly and deliberately so as not to spill any water but also to conserve strength so that I can finish the job. Also the weight of each bucket will pull my shoulders down and drag me into the ground, which means my legs work not only harder but more rootedly. All in all the stress caused by the extra weight forces my body to work better than it would if it was unstressed and forces my mind to be really present with the task and with the body performing the task. It is the same with any action. Anything I can do easily I will tend to do carelessly, i.e. I will be thinking about something else as I do it. What this means is that my support (what supports me and what I support) is taken for granted, and my trust never deepens, i.e. my energy rarely if ever extends into my points of support: my actions don't communicate. Now any action I perform without full attention will lack the richness and connectedness of a mindful action. What this means physically is that the action is not rooted, i.e. the support for the action is incomplete causing there to be a break in the energetic channel from the ground through my body to the action itself: the body itself is supporting the action because the ground is not seemingly needed. The difficulty is to establish this energetic channel all the way through to the Earth: to realign and stimulate the missing muscles in the channel to come into play. One of the techniques we use in Tai Chi is the equivalent to picking up two buckets of water as I walk: we find a way of adding resistance to the action to make it more difficult and more strenuous. As an example lets take breathing in. It is an action I have performed well over 200 million times since I was born and assuming my airways are clear it is an action I can (and do) perform automatically and without attention or awareness. Now if I pinch my nostrils slightly to constrict them, suddenly breathing in is difficult and I am aware of the muscles performing the action. Not only that, but other muscles not normally used come into play, especially those in my belly around the dantien, and those in my legs, which pull the Earth up as my diaphragm pulls the air down. I am suddenly aware that breathing in is not simply a matter of depressing the diaphragm, but also requires the muscles in the belly and legs to support the diaphragm. Then I breathe not just air through the nose but the Earth through the legs.