Lovely links about breath

There are so many wonderful lenses to view our breathing through. We read about it all the time and consider how many different approaches to breath affect our bodies and our clients' bodies. We have all experienced how a deep breath can change the quality of the body. Breathe fully while checking out the links below.

Dr. Dooley offers these contemplations on breath and long term pain management. 

Timothy McCall discusses his experience learning and teaching inhalation as warming and exhalation as cooling on Yoga Dork. 

Here is a great article from MindBodyGreen that details a few great breathing exercises for new moms.  We think these exercises are great for anyone :)

Want to take your understanding of breath to a whole new level?  Check out Jessica Wolf's Art of Breathing!

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Noticing your Breath

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again- Thich Nhat Hanh

When we place our mind on our breath we inherently place our mind on movement within our body. Taking some time to practice noticing your breath can be valuable to your Pilates practice. What you notice about your breathing may hold a lot of information about patterns in your body and where they originate. Developing the ability to notice, follow and listen to your breath is a transferable skill within your movement practice. You can then apply that same calm attention to other movements, patterns or locations in your body. Just working on noticing when we are not moving gives your mind time and space to develop endurance and clarity of focus. 

The breath is special though. It is constant. It is anchoring. Breathing influences and is influenced by our emotions. Being with your breath without judgement can lead to being with those movements with openness and simply noticing what comes up as we travel through our Pilates practice. 

Just Breathe by Travis Bedel

Here's an exercise you can use to begin to notice your breath or to find it again if it's become cloudy in your awareness. There are infinite ways to do this. As you change your attention use your mind to continue to notice, resisting any urge to judge or compliment. You may notice other sensations and movements that are not described here. The realm of the breath is infinite. For this exercise give value to all things you notice without qualifying them.

Sit somewhere quiet and in a comfortable position with your spine easily in neutral. 

Allow your body and mind to settle. 

Find a comfortable soft focus with your vision. Tune into your mind's eye. 

Let your breath move normally. You don't need to control it or change it.  Breathe here for several rounds until you feel like you can really place your mind solely on your breath. It may want to wander into daydream, sleep or to do lists- just notice those tendencies and stay with your breath.

For the next rounds of breathing place your attention on your nostrils. Notice the sensation of your breath as wind moving past your nostrils in both directions. Notice the temperature of your breath. Feel how the breath tells you the shape of your nostrils and breathing passageways. 

Return to just watching your breath from the bird's eye view of your mind, letting your mind remain empty except for noticing. 

For a few rounds place your attention on your rib cage. Feel the expansion of your rib cage on the in breath. Take in all the directions your ribs can expand placing your attention on the front, sides, back, top and bottom with no rush. Watch how the size and shape of your torso changes as you breath. Then place your attention on your out breath. Feel the ribs draw closer to the center line of your body and the sternum drop away from your chin.

Return to just watching your breath from the bird's eye view of your mind, letting your mind remain empty except for noticing. 

For the following rounds place your attention on your abdomen, the great space below your bell shaped rib cage housing all your viscera. Let your attention expand from your bottom ribs to your hip crests and pubic bone in the front. Watch what happens on the in breath and where your breath travels in your torso below your lungs. Stay with that for a moment. Let your attention travel to the back of your torso all the way from your lowest rib to your sitz bones -- feel the directions your torso expands on the in breath, where pressure might increase or decrease and what sensations caused by the in breath draw your attention.  

Then place your minds eye on your solar plexus right in the center of your torso. Still without changing anything, notice how your breath travels through your center, supports your center, changes the shape of your center and is also affected by your center. 

Sit quietly for a few more breaths with your minds eye just resting on the continuous tempo of your breathing. 

Two Lungs, Five Lobes

Shorty Swan with some organ insights! I don't have lungs but I do build the house for them. Fundamentally we should all at least understand their shape. Building a good image of your lungs in your mind's eye is useful for watching your breath or executing different breathing techniques. 

Everyone knows that we have two lungs. We often think of them as symmetrical organs that mirror each other on the right and left half of our thoracic cavity. Not so! Our lungs are good neighbors to all the other organs housed in our torso and are shaped in a way that makes room for all our essential viscera. 

Each of your lungs is divided into lobes by fissures. Your right lung is slightly bigger than your left one. Your right lung has three lobes (superior, middle and inferior) and your left lung has only two (upper and lower). Your heart is snuggled just slightly left of center and having only two lobes in the left lung makes room for the heart in the thoracic cavity. This space created for your heart by your lung lobes is called the cardiac notch. Your right lung is a bit shorter than your left to make room for your liver which lives underneath your right lung below the diaphragm. 

The division of lungs into lobes allows for increased surface area for respiration. Additionally, if something damages one of your lungs there is a greater chance that the other lobes can continue to function. "A normal pair of lungs can hold about two pints of air, while the average person breathes in about one or less per breath" (Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life). 

Image from wikipedia.

The more you know the more you grow. Learn more about the the functionality and importance of breath here!

D is for Diaphragm

Ever wondered what people are talking about when they talk about the diaphragm? You aren't alone! For one thing, you have more than one diaphragm in your body! When talking about breathing and how to bring breath into the lungs, we are often referring to your thoracic diaphragm. This diaphragm is shaped kind of like a big dome or the top of a balloon. It is positioned below your ribs and above your organs --  it is like the Pantheon at the base of your ribs. When the diaphragm engages, the central tendon pulls the center of the diaphragm down towards your pelvis, creating a vacuum in your thoracic cavity which causes your lungs to take in air. On the exhale your diaphragm moves up and assists your lungs in emptying their air.  

The diaphragm is an involuntary muscle that doesn't need your thoughts to make it work. This being said, it is very beneficial to take time to get to know this muscle, how it works, and to do breathing exercises to help it work better. Having tension in any of your breathing apparatus can cause havoc on the rest of your body. Taking a few minutes to slow down and breath in a thoughtful way can massively change not only your Pilates practice, but can also alter your stress levels, loosen your back and give you an overall sense of calm.

Image from Albinus on Anatomy by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle

Come see us at the Swan to learn about the relationship of the diaphragm to the iliopsoas and your Kidney and Adrenal function!

Breath

Your breath is essential for life. How you breathe is greatly affected by your physical, mental and emotional bodies and their experiences or ways of holding themselves. The reverse is also true in that how deeply, calmly, quickly, mindfully, naturally or forced you breath profoundly influences how you feel emotionally, physically and mentally.

Your breath connects you to the outside world. It is the thread from external to internal.

Here are some various and interesting perspectives on all that is our breath:

"Cellular breathing is the absorption of oxygen and removal of waste products in every cell"- Andrea Olsen, Body Stories

"If your breathing is in any way restricted, to that degree, so is your life"- Michael Grant White in Wheels of Life

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”-Thich Nhat Hanh 

Collage by Travis Bedel

"Without breath we could not speak, for air is the force behind our voice. We could not metabolize our food without oxygen. Our brain could not think. Breathing is a grossly underestimated source of life giving, healing and purifying energy."- Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life

"It is a common belief that we breathe with our lungs alone, but in point of fact, the work of breathing is done by the whole body. The lungs play a passive role in the respiratory process."- Alexander Lowen

To "catch one's breath" and "in the same breath" are commonly used phrases that communicate an understood amount of time or tempo which cannot be quantified. 

Breath is a layered, textured element that can be rhythmic, change qualities drastically and is the one nourishing activity we go the shortest time without. It is movement. It is both conscious and unconscious. It is the perfect bridge to connect mind to body.