Opening The Diaphragm

Learn to open the diaphragm for optimal oxygen intake. When we can breathe properly, we can move prana or life force energy in our body. Learning to breathe into the back and side ribs helps us to connect to our inner and outer worlds. This meditation includes metaphors and exercises for the metal element and includes reflective contemplation.

Transcript

Take a moment now and just observe your breath.

Many people that I coach posture awareness to have a hard time with the exercise I'm going to share with you today.

They have a hard time focusing the breath not only into the abdomen because they're so used to breathing into the chest,

But they have an even more difficult time breathing into the back body.

What I notice about people's breathing is most people breathe with a focus on the rise and fall of the belly,

Which is focusing on the front of the body.

The back of the body is connection to the universe.

Lung meridian is said to move chi through the body.

And in yoga we call this prana.

Both are referred to as soul energy or life force energy.

If you think of your breath as life force energy,

Take a moment to ask yourself,

Where do I put my focus in my life?

Let's start there.

Lie down and make yourself really comfortable.

Perhaps putting a pillow under the knees and a small pillow under your head.

Go ahead and cover yourself up with a blanket.

Extend your arms straight up to the ceiling.

Spread your fingers wide.

Stretching out the palm.

Now curl the fingers into the palm while leaving the thumb extended.

As you breathe in,

Open your arms out to the side in a T.

And as you exhale,

Place your palms on your upper abdomen just below your rib cage.

Metal is the element related to the lung meridian.

Metal is shining and hard.

So take a moment and ask yourself,

Are you too hard on yourself?

Are you too hard on others?

Do you focus on shiny things,

Things of endowment?

Or do you need to focus on how you represent and communicate your inner riches and your potential to the outer world?

Do you protect or open the front of the body?

Who has your back?

As you reflect on these questions,

Be aware of your body,

Your posture and where you're holding tension.

Use your breath now to breathe into that tension.

Notice your breath.

Where does the breath go?

Where does it get stuck?

Oxygen feeds every cell in the body.

The diaphragm is the muscle responsible for allowing the body to breathe in this oxygen.

The diaphragm is often tight and does not function well because of stress,

Because of our posture and our inability to breathe beyond the upper chest.

In yoga,

We teach a simple technique called bellows breath that helps to establish a rhythm of inhalation and exhalation.

Let's experience that breath now.

With your hands still on your upper abdomen,

Imagine fanning a fire with a bellows.

Breathing in,

Can you feel how the breath goes into the abdomen?

And breathing out.

Try and keep the rhythm steady.

In out in out in out.

You probably feel the rise and fall of the belly.

This focus,

This bellows breath,

This rhythm that you're creating by focusing on the rise and fall of the abdomen is one sided,

Meaning you're only focusing on the front of the body.

And this is a fabulous place to start.

However,

Your body has a front,

A back,

Side,

A top and bottom.

In order to feel the diaphragm move,

We need to focus on the front,

Sides and back.

So picture an open umbrella and you're holding it to your abdomen.

The umbrella isn't just open on the front plane,

It's also open on the sides and the back of your body too.

So let's feel the full effects of the diaphragm in action with what I call fish gills breathing.

Take a moment now and picture a fish and observe the fish breathing.

The gills of the fish are serrated segments at the sides of the head that open and close when it breathes.

Now focus on the sides of your ribs around the back of your ribs.

Hug yourself tight as you slide your right hand to cover your left side rib and your left hand to cover your right side rib.

Now as you establish that rhythmic inhalation and exhalation,

Focus the movement to the sides and back of the ribs,

Feeling your ribs by focusing the movement under your fingertips.

Good.

Now just allow your hands to relax one on top of the other on your upper abdomen again.

Let your arms feel heavy,

Dripping down the sides of your ribs.

And now we'll do an exercise called freeing the diaphragm.

This will help to improve circulation and restore energy from the top half of the body to the bottom half,

Allowing much needed oxygen to flow into these areas.

Keeping your hands flat on your upper abdomen,

One hand on top of the other,

Allow your arms to hug in tightly,

Your elbows squeezing tight against your body.

Now take a long deep breath in and push out with your ribs and your abdomen into your hands,

Your arms,

And then hold the breath as long as you can while pushing out with your abdomen and squeezing down and in with your hands and arms.

Push out from the inside and hug tightly on the outside.

Hold until you can no longer hold your breath and then exhale out through the mouth if you need to relax the whole.

Take a moment and take a long deep breath again.

Push the belly out,

Feel the ribs expand and at the top of that inhalation,

Hold your breath and squeeze palms into the belly,

Arms into the sides as you push out.

All the while holding your breath,

Hold until you can't hold anymore and then as you exhale,

Relax the hands and the arms.

Do that one more time.

Breathing in and pushing out,

Holding the breath as you squeeze it all together.

Feel the diaphragm opening the sides and the back of the body as you push out and when you can't hold your breath anymore,

Let it go.

Breathe out.

Now on your inhale,

Reach your right hand around the left waist and as you exhale with your palm flat,

Pull your fingers to your navel.

Do this three more times,

Reaching around the left side as far as you can,

Breathing in and as you exhale,

Sliding your fingertips with firm pressure all the way to your navel.

Two more times.

And now switch.

Your left hand reaches as far around your right waist as you can,

Breathe in and as you exhale,

Drag your fingers firmly from your side rib to your navel.

Three more times.

Reach around,

Breathe in and as you exhale,

Massage by dragging your fingers from the side rib to your navel.

Two more times.

Good.

Now just give your hands a little shake and you can let your arms rest where you want to,

Either by your side or hands on your belly again.

Now take a moment just to reflect on where you are able to establish a new breathing pattern.

Were you able to open the diaphragm more?

Can you feel the vellos going into the back of the body now?

Can you feel tension released?

When you're ready,

You can slowly flutter your eyes open.

Take a long deep breath in through the nose.

Notice where your breath goes,

Feel the diaphragm open and let it out through the mouth.

Good.

Our meditation is now complete.

Thank you for joining me today.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you for these wonderful techniques. I will use daily.🙏🏽

Thank you so much. I just had a robotic surgery and in recovery now. For days, I have been feeling stuck in my breathing, but this exercise helped release my diaphragm. Appreciate your sharing this practice. 🙏🏼

I started this with hiccups and they're gone now. Thank you [edit x2]

I’ve had to sit a lot for work this is soooo helpful in repairing that damage, thank you!

Neat practice to bring awareness to the function of the diaphragm. Thank you for sharing

this practice helped me to realize that I’ve been breathing fully for awhile now, but haven’t been conscious of it. acknowledging the fullness of the breath brought me a deep sense of calm and wholeness. grateful for this practice 😌🙏🏾

Great new breathwork technique, thank you!!!

Absolutely loved it! I'm so glad I found this meditation. Thanks a lot 🙏🏼💜

Excellent. After 22 days I the hospital due to covid, this will be my goto meditation for improving my lungs

Great exercise!

This be is wonderful! I feel cleansed and such aliveness! Thank you.