Soothing Sandbag Breathing

Welcome to this breathing practice.

My name is Nicole and I will be leading you in a breathing formula called sandbag breathing.

In this formula,

We will strengthen our respiratory muscles and you will need 5 to 12 pounds of weight in a sealed sand or rice bag and a comfortable place to rest your head.

Let's get started.

Place a blanket under your head and lie with either your legs supported over a bolster or your legs supported on a chair.

Place the sand or rice bag across the upper abdomen at the base of your sternum where the ribs connect.

Relax your eyes and sense the circulation motioning through your nose to bring that warm and moist air into your lungs,

Expanding your lung capacity.

We begin a period now of weight training for our breathing muscles.

You can also place the bag lengthwise from the heart down to the abdomen if placing it horizontally across the ribs feels uncomfortable or it falls down.

Placing the sandbag focuses your attention there.

Whichever direction you have chosen to place the bag,

Across or lengthwise,

Brings the attention to raising the sandbag as you inhale and lowering the weight as you exhale.

You are not pushing the bag up by protruding the abdomen.

The bag rises from the motion of the diaphragm.

Continue practicing.

Explore the grounding and rooting and pleasantly held sensation of this weight on your core.

This can be very therapeutic and calming and have a feeling of being held.

The weight on the abdomen requires you to work a little harder to inhale and expand the lungs.

As you exhale,

The sandbag will naturally push down,

Causing the breath to flow out quickly and create more space behind the heart.

Regulate your exhalation so that it is relaxed and approximately the same length as the inhalation.

This will strengthen your diaphragm and tone the abdominal muscles.

When your abdomen is relaxed,

It allows the diaphragm to operate naturally.

Simply start with 5 minutes increasing to 10 or more.

To further increase muscle tone,

You can add more weight or turn the sandbag lengthwise from the ribs to the belly.

Whichever way you did not practice in the beginning,

You might change it.

But do consider the next time you practice that you increase it by another 5 minutes.

Practicing once a day to strengthen your breathing muscles.

You will notice a difference in your breath awareness.

The sandbags on our ribs allows us to get deeper stretch into our lungs and applying the sand to the ribs can stretch the muscles that hold the pelvis and your trunk together.

Breathing of this kind soothes the nervous system and leads you to understanding the forces of breath within your body.

Thank you for practicing and caring for yourself.

I wish you happy breathing and wellness from this practice.