Tag: full breathing

Songs Are Thoughts Sung With The Breath

“Songs are thoughts sung with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices”.

“There are so many occasions in one’s life when a joy or a sorrow is felt in such a way that the desire comes to sing. All my being is songs, and I sing as I draw breath.”

— Orpingalik  (Inuit poet and shaman)

From the beginning of time humans sang their stories.  Sacred, playful, joyous, sensual, blues, gospel, or wild – song has woven our history on this planet.  It was at a “Song Weavers” event last weekend that I realized that it is rare that I break out in song myself, and certainly don’t sing with my friends or my community.  It was also at this event that I discovered how tight my singing voice actually was.  Yet, within the space of a couple of hours I also realized how easily, within the company of others, that voice can be released and played with.

The video below instructs us on how to breathe for singing.  Watch and listen carefully and notice that this breath strengthens and expands our diaphragm muscles and relaxes the upper chest, neck and facial muscles –  secondary breathing muscles that are often used in tight, contracted, chest breathing and stressful situations.   The emphasis on lengthening the exhale with the hissss sound allows us to find our ground of being, relaxed voice, and our full expression.  This also builds and expands our capacity for breath and thus for LIFE.  Practice this and then let loose with a song, a sound, a tone!

P.S.  For those of you that are Carol King/James Taylor lovers here is a treat – they are back together and are touring.  Not only do they love to sing the “hits” –  we love to sing along with them!

Stomp Your Feet – Clap Your Hands

The human body is an amazing miracle of sacred engineering!  How else could you explain the subtle and intricate network of interconnections that make up this physical body of ours.  There had to be a Master Creator at work on this particular project!  Yet we go around day after day taking our body for granted and not realizing that the feet, or foundation upon which we walk…and our dexterous hands that are literally miraculous in all of the feats (no pun intended) that they have mastered – are gateways to opening and expanding our breath….. our lives.

A friend of mine in Ireland writes that we are Infinite Beings in Finite Bodies…yet it is here in the body – right at our disposal – that we have the ability to open up our breath and the multitude of energy networks that make up this “finite” body of ours.  Sometimes I like to think that our energetic bodies expand out forever connecting with others in unseen – but felt – connection.  Perhaps this is not what we can see with our eyes, but this quantum connection is our relationship to the Divine in all of us.

Having practiced energy work for many years I have always been fascinated with reflex, acupressure, acupuncture, or energy points in the body.  For your pleasure this week I invite you to play with your hands and feet when you take breaks throughout your day…or even better yet, start or end your day with a little massage on the lung and diaphragm points shown on the charts below.  Feel particularly adventuresome?  Then explore other parts as well! You can click on the picture for larger views.

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