Navigating Your Breath
*This post is a continuation from Intention.
What have you noticed since investing time into conscious breathing? Some things to consider:
•Do you inhale and exhale through your nose or through your mouth?
•Which do you prefer?
•How does your body move during an inhale and an exhale?
•Where do you feel the breath the most? Belly? Chest? Nose? Mouth? Throat? Back body?
•How do you feel after practicing conscious breathing?
•Have you noticed that some breaths feel more calming than others?
•Do you notice any feelings of panic and anxiety as you practice?
•When you’re reminded that it’s time to practice, what is your gut level response? Any ideas why you react this way?
Now that you have built some breath awareness, let’s bring some attention to the mechanics of your breathing. In Belisa Vranich’s Breathe, she describes the muscular and emotional corsets we wear every day. In our mid-section, we are either bracing, guarding, sucking it in, or maybe a combination of all three. These corsets interfere with functional breathing. Try paying attention to the corsets you wear, and see if you are able to address any of the emotional bracing and guarding you do to protect yourself. You can do this by journaling and/or allowing yourself to experience the feelings that bubble up when you pay attention. Talking with friends and/or a therapist are helpful ways to notice patterns and experience relief from the emotional corsets we all wear.
The next step is directing breath into the belly. This part is hard, as it impacts our vanity. We have all been taught to suck it in, take a power stance, look skinny, etc. Breathing with the belly means letting go of bracing and sucking in. It means letting out your gut. Ugh. This is temporary, the first step to proper breathing mechanics. As you practice belly breathing, you send air to the deepest, densest part of your lungs where gas exchange occurs, fueling and detoxifying you. You also exercise your actual breathing muscles, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles in the ribcage. When you use your breathing muscles, you breathe efficiently and you build a stronger core that works with the diaphragm to benefit your body in countless ways. (I’ll devote a post to this.) You give a break to the accessory muscles in the neck and shoulders that are working when we breathe inefficiently. This leads to less tension in the neck and shoulders, and who doesn’t want that?
Practice:
Try lying on your back, one hand on your chest, the other hand on your belly. As you inhale, feel your belly rise into your hand, as the inhale extends, feel it in your chest.
When you exhale, feel the chest lower, then the belly.
Notice the breath moving in and out of the back ribs, where 60% of the lungs live. This is good! Why wouldn’t we want to send air to the largest portion of our lungs?! Lying on the ground gives you this feedback.
Notice a subtle movement in your pelvis as you breathe. Inhales tilt the pelvis slightly forward, arching the low back away from the ground. Exhales elicit a slight tuck of the pelvis, flattening the low back toward the floor.
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