I have taken a class that, in part, taught a form of breath that they called "anal breathing." I know, not a particularly appealing name. The principle seemed sound.

See, most people breath into the chest without making much use of the diaphragm. This could be because vanity has us holding our stomachs tight or it could have something to do with closed chakras or whatever. Anyway, I and others I know have been taught to try to overcome this and return to diaphragm breathing by breathing into the belly.

This belly breathing, while better than chest breathing, is still not optimum. Hence anal breathing. When the diaphragm pulls down, if it pulls completely, it will push organs in the belly out, but also down, and so pushes down the torso. With a hand on the anus or perennium, you can actually fell the downward push if you breathe all the way down.

I thought there must be a better way to describe this than "anal breathing." And I realized it is really "root breathing." Breathing all the way down to the root chakra. I like the sound of that a lot better. So, anyway, root breathing makes optimal use of the diaphragm and thus is better than mere belly breathing.

Then I watched water emptying out of a drain and spiraling downward and I thought: When air or water fill a new container, they don't go evenly in. Rather, they spiral into it. So, I wondered if, when we breathe in, the air spirals into our lungs and then spirals its way out again?

I know the lungs aren't an empty vessel waiting to be filled. Rather, they work more like a hypodermic needle, with the plunger acting like the diaphragm. When you exhale, it is because there IS no room for the air in the lungs because the space is being eliminated by the movement of the diaphragm. Stil, even in the plunger/hypo model, it is still possible there is some spiral motion going on during inhale and exhale. I'd be curious to see if any biologists know for a fact if the air in the lungs swirls in and out, or moves in a more direct line in and out.