Category: Physiology of the Breath

Patterns As Prisons

Dewitt Jones  “Our patterns, too long unquestioned, become our prisons. Break the pattern! And see the scene before you with new eyes.”

Weekly I receive a picture and quote from DeWitt Jones, an internationally known photo journalist who is committed to viewing life and the world as something to celebrate every single day.  This weeks picture and quote made me start thinking about the patterns of breathing that we inhabit on a moment to moment basis, most of which we are completely unaware of.

What I saw in the pattern of the regimented vineyard above was multifaceted.  The red bucket of course interrupts the necessary uniformity required to grow and harvest grapes – almost as if it was an exclamation point thrown in to startle the eyes from only seeing a certain pattern.  The mass of yellow flowers beneath support the possibility of other choices as they wildly grow in whatever way they choose.

Having lived in wine country for 14 years I was used to seeing scenes such as the one in this picture and noticed when the new growth or Fall colors would change the landscape and thus the pattern.  However, there was always an underlying blueprint that best supported optimal growth.

This is how I see the patterns of our breathing.  The underlying blueprint for optimal breathing was installed before you were even born and activated once you took your first breath.  It is what is overlaying this healthy natural breath blueprint that I address here.

A very large percentage of people breathe very shallowly using secondary breath muscles (neck, upper back and chest).  Consequently why there is so much tension and discomfort in the head, neck and shoulders.  These muscles were never meant to be the primary care giver for the breath. They are often depended on because of bad posture, sitting for long periods of time, stress and fear, and most certainly lack of daily movement to stimulate natural breathing cycles as a result of being in our heads way too much of the time.

Did you know that there is a correlation between upper chest breathing and heart disease?  Of note is that almost all people that have had heart attacks are presumably chest breathers.  The heart is attached to the diaphragm by fascia.  Each time we breathe utilizing the diaphragm and other primary muscles for breathing the heart is massaged!

This is just one of the many benefits that a natural fluid diaphragmatic breath can bring.  Our primary breathing muscles are the thoracic diaphragm, the muscles between the ribs (intercostals), and the abdominal muscles (front of belly) as well as the pelvic diaphragm.  When you breathe in a natural healthy way the breath should be felt in pelvis, belly, back, and all of the ribcage.

Invite a full embodied breath in today and give it to the rising sun – a key to break free of the patterns that have captured your vital health and aliveness!

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Breathing In A Danish Psychomotor View

Breathing Spaces is blessed to have a global readership which brings new perspectives on the breath to my attention.  I was most fortunate to connect with a Danish “psychomotor therapist” by the name of Siff L. E. Skovenborg just a month ago.

Siff  shared with me that Denmark has a high level education training program completely centered on a humanistic approach to movement, breath, and body awareness.  Of course I was intrigued and asked if she would write an article for BreathingSpaces.

Below you will find her article.  I invite you to dialog with Siff either via a comment here, or directly to her e-mail below.

Breathing In A Danish Psychomotor View

By Siff L. E. Skovenborg – psychomotor therapist

Being a therapist and teacher of psychomotricity in Denmark, working with breath and breathing patterns has for years been a special interest for me. Psychomotricity is a therapy with roots in phenomenology and body therapy (Reich and Lowen) as well as anatomy and physiology. The tradition however goes further back than that. The Danish psychomotoric tradition started in the 1930’s and sprung from dance, performance and gymnastics into a manual treatment therapy. The focus has always been to balance the work of the muscles and to increase the awareness of the body so that the bodily impulses could spring more freely and expressively. In that way the view of the body has roots in the humanistic approach.

The body is viewed as a totality – there’s no real division between mind and matter – only when we focus the attention to one dimension it seems to be a difference in expression. The same goes for the breath. The way we breathe is the way we live. Holding or controlling breath is holding or controlling the life we lead. Breathing solely in the belly or the chest is avoiding contact or relation to the emotions or sensations in these areas.

Still there are two ways for the breath to function: autonomic or voluntary. Voluntary is when you control the breath either to increase the expanse or to decrease or even stop breathing for a shorter or longer period. Still we breathe when sleeping, when being unaware or in need for more air for instance when exercising. However the controlled breathing can become a pattern that affects the autonomic function. Doing breathing exercises or being afraid of being in touch with emotional responses can limit where the breath goes, how much air we breathe in or out and how the muscles that make the breathing happen works.

So the work of a psychomotoric therapist is to open for the breathing space and for more autonomic control, so that you get a free, diverse breathing that regulates itself according to the situation. In order to do so, we have different approaches depending on the client’s history and resources (bodily/mentally and socially).

If a client that has learned a controlled breath for example in yoga classes and believes that a belly breath is the only right way to breathe. Here the therapist can choose to educate the client about the physiology of breathing and the autonomic function. If the client has the possibility of viewing a small baby in his or her sleep the variety of breathing can be seen and understood. Then exercises to learn to let the breath control itself can be relevant. Jacques Dropsy author of ‘The Well-Tuned Body’ describes such exercises, that we also use in psychomotricity.

Another example could be a client who is afraid to be in touch with emotions, you need to teach the client to deal with emotions first. We do that by letting the client describe the bodily sensations in a matter of a fact way. What is a matter of fact is the heart beating, the sweat, the pulse, the muscle tension, the breath. If the client tends to talk from the emotions or the mind, the therapist keeps helping the client back to a descriptive approach. When this approach succeeds, the client experiences that the emotion or sensation lingers off. Gradually he experiences mastery of being in the present with the sensation without changing it willingly or forcefully. When this is learned we can start working directly or indirectly with breath.

As a psychomotoric therapist we tend to begin the work with the breath indirectly, as the direct approach can make the client too aware of the breath to let it work automatically. Indirect work is for example manually or through exercises which increase the elasticity of connective tissue around the body, or by doing exercises that demand more oxygen and therefore forces the body to take deeper or stronger breaths.  Direct work is breathing exercises, manual treatment on primary or secondary breathing muscles, or breathing awareness. When working directly with breath we almost always return to exercises that help the client to return to autonomic breathing.

Which approaches the therapist chooses, depends on the type of client. Every client is met on his or her own terms and the therapist always strives to engage the client to investigate the bodily/emotional/mental phenomenon together.

For more information you are welcome to contact me at sisk@ucc.dk or post@kropsliv.dk

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Breath of Flight – Ride The Wave

“Life is in the breath.  One who half breathes, half lives.”  Chinese Proverb

As I write this 1,000’s of feet up in the air in a plane, taking a deep breath seems to take on a very different set of life skills.  Why is that?  Recycled air, crunched seating with one’s body confined to a very small area of moving room, cabin pressure, and oh those little tiny bathrooms that when toilets are flushed you wonder if you just might be sucked down and out into the wild blue yonder!

This post is dedicated to the deep diaphragmatic breath.  I call it the breath of flight, not only because I am writing this confined to that little tiny seat and breathing recycled air, but because I believe that this breath assists us to take flight in our lives.

Used in many different situations, this deep breath marks moments when we are reminded that we are indeed biological creatures that need air to function.  Often we find ourselves taking a deep breath because all of a sudden we realize that we have not been breathing at all…or I guess I should say very shallowly.  For periods of time when focused on something outside of our bodies – which is often by the way – we hold our breath.

How in the world can we remain more conscious to breathe fully with all of our primary breathing muscles instead of secondary ones?  Most people use secondary breath muscles which are the muscles of the front of the neck, pectoralis muscles in the chest, sternocleidomastoid, and the upper trapezius.

What are not used as often are the primary muscles of breathing which include the diaphragm, intercostal (between the ribs) and the abdominal muscles that are meant to give us that full-bodied breathing experience that our bodies innately crave.

Awareness is the key here.  What if we took Breath Awareness Breaks (BAB’s for short) instead of coffee breaks?  Might we feel more enlivened, relaxed, peaceful, focused and creative?   The daily practice of rhythmic (wave-like) diaphragmatic breathing with gradual and equal prolongation of the inhalation and exhalation will enhance the body’s ability to experience a sense of deep relaxation and rest, free of stress and strain, and with a marked feeling of calm and peace.

Diaphragmatic Wave Breath Practice:

*Sit upright in a chair with both feet on the floor or ground, or lay down with something under your knees and head if necessary.  (No the latter position will not work in the airplane!)

*Place your hands on your legs palm side down, if you are seated.  If lying down rest your hands on your belly to encourage the inhale to expand there first.

*Take 3 deep breaths with mouth slightly open and relax – feeling the stress exit your body and the toxic mental chatter drain away. Let your body relax/soften into the chair, or the surface you are lying on.

*Inhale completely through your nostrils with your mouth closed allowing the lower abdomen/stomach area to push out/rise up as the air moves in.  (contraction of diaphragm – it moves down.)

*Exhale completely through the nostrils releasing all of the air out and drawing the naval (belly button) down towards your spine and up under the ribs. (relaxing of diaphragm – it relaxes back up.) The wave of breath unfolds itself to the shore of the next pause.

*Do this practice in a series of 7 breaths.  Rest for 2 minutes while being aware of your breathing and how you feel in your body, mind and emotions.  Repeat the process two more times.

This breath massages all of the internal organs, encourages the movement and flow of the lymphatic and vascular systems,  – and of course exercises the respiratory system which requires moment to moment workouts to keep it healthy and strong.

This is especially important when we are sitting for long periods of time or inactive physically.  Next time that you fly, whether in an airplane or on your next stepping off of the proverbial cliff for a life change flight, put your attention on the wave breath and see what happens.

“To become a welcome vessel for the breath is to live life without trying to control, grasp, or push away.”  Donna Farhi, The Breathing Book

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Breathing 101:  We are all breathing in some fashion, even when we are not aware of our breath, but the normal patterns of breathing are usually shallow, restricted, and contain many holding patterns.  These reflect deep imbalances in our systems.  When our breathing patterns are weak, we may have low energy and find ourselves easily fatigued and more emotionally stressed.  When our breathing patterns are deep and strong, we have increased endurance, stamina, and a sense of well-being.

For further information about this 2 hour workshop, please go to the tab above and consider contacting Gaye Abbott, RYT for an experience that will unlock your potential to thrive in life through breath awareness.

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Breathe Through Your Heart

 

Years of “meditation”, formal and informal, have taught me that fully being present to  life moments is truly the “meditation” that will change not only our individual lives, but all that we touch and beyond.   This practice of awareness  has the potential to open possibilities for free creative expression, connection, and collaboration in all the varied forms that it takes.

As we pay particular attention to the feelings that are informing our hearts, the electromagnetic currents radiate out and energetically connect all over the world. Global shift and transformation come from this – this deep interconnection with all of life.  What we do individually really does matter.

The power that we hold collectively is beyond measure.  It is not only being felt more strongly now, but more of us are coming together to create change in alignment with the health of the planet and well being of all living creatures.   There is no separation.

Praying for the water that has been contaminated by radioactivity, joining 1,000‘s of others meditating for peace and non-violence, breathing together as one on behalf of those that have been affected by disaster…..there is no action that is taken, nor event that transpires, that is not felt by all.

As we breathe fully we are able to inhabit our lives with awareness – to break the structures of our lives that have kept us imprisoned.  As we breathe fully we can feel fully….and no matter what those feelings are, or how difficult they may be,  they are shared by many.  You are not alone…no never alone.

Even physiologically each of us reduce our hearts work when we breathe fully and naturally.   This produces a stronger and more efficient heart that not only works better, but also lasts longer.  It reduces the cardiac rhythm, and at the same time our nervous system is relaxed, helping us to feel better, with more energy and an increase in tranquility….which of course is transmitted to the life around us.

We have a choice.   First open your heart to yourself and in this moment breathe through your heart.   Soften your belly – allow the guarding and protection to melt away.  Just for this moment….and the next….and the next…..and the next.  Breathe through your heart.

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Make Room In Your Pelvis

Have you ever checked in with the tension that you may be holding in your pelvic floor muscles??  If you live in a Western culture I would be willing to bet that there is quite a bit of unnecessary tension there (we don’t squat much!), which is coupled with self image and the way we think and feel about ourselves and the world we inhabit.

The pelvis is part of the lower breathing space and pelvic floor muscles directly affect the quality and fullness of our breathing.  Here is what Dennis Lewis says about it in Breathe Into Being:

“These muscles include the perineum, located between the anus and sexual organs, and the pelvic diaphragm, which stretches across the floor of the pelvic cavity.  In healthy natural breathing, during inhalation the diaphragm in the chest moves downward, the belly expands outward, the abdomen widens in all directions, and the pelvic floor moves slightly downward.  During exhalation, the entire process is reversed, with the pelvic diaphragm moving slightly upward.  If the pelvic floor is chronically constricted in any way, a spontaneous natural breath is not possible.  The free movement through us of the breath of life requires a pelvic floor that is both relaxed and resilient.”

When these muscles are relaxed and open you will also feel more grounded  and rooted to the earth and a sense of peacefulness may flow in.    Increasing awareness in this area is done by squatting more often, and paying attention to the muscles in the pelvic floor and whether they are guarded and tense, or relaxed and open.

Squatting can be difficult for some, so if this is true for you, then simply put something underneath your heels. You can also place your hands in front of you on the floor for balance.  As you squat, notice as you breath the movements in belly, back, pelvis and chest.  Also notice if there is a shift in your tension level, emotions, and mind chatter.  The belly may soften, relax, and let go.  As you practice this it will become easier over time. Muscles will open up that have been chronically tight and holding on for years.

When to do this?  Whenever you might choose to sit in a chair – instead squat!  Watching T.V., listening to music, talking on the phone….the possibilities are endless.  Try it out with the intention of just observing and watching your breath.  This practice is not meant to be a work out move or even a yoga technique!  It is simply inhabiting your body, grounding to the earth,  and making more room for life!

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