Breathe Into Healing

In this lesson, we examine how many of us restrict our exhalation process. Holding in, repressing, and cutting off a full body release through our exhale. Exhaling deeply invites us to express and allow what is held in our body to move through and make way for new energy to come in. While limiting a full exhalation may have been defensive, protective and helpful at one point in our lives, now it is preventing us from letting go of the old and outdated. It stops us from expelling carbon dioxide and can create a build-up of dense energy and tension in our bodies over time. The two techniques explored today help us to connect more deeply to a full-body exhale. An invitation to return to the unrestrictive diaphragmatic breathing of babies who simply release, let go and let down. Such depth of breath elicits suppressed emotions, bringing them to the surface to be felt and expressed. The first technique explores letting go with the use of sighing and sounding out what is lingering in our body. The second technique places emphasis on a long exhale through curled lips which helps to expand and elongate extraction of micro-tensions, ultimately connecting us to states of deep calm, rest and digest as we activate the parasympathetic nervous system and return to states of equilibrium.