Finding Your Natural Breath

This class uses a gentle awareness and movement practice (what I term Somatic Education) to improve your ability to sense and then relax the muscles of your diaphragm and abdomen, freeing space for your natural breathing to be effortlessly expressed. Though working through the physical body, this practice can help with calming and centering the mind.

Transcript

To begin with lie on your back. Make any adjustments you need to be as comfortable as possible in this position. You may wish to place a bolster under your knees. You may wish to lift your knees up and place your feet on the ground. You may wish to place a cushion behind your head so that your neck can relax. And check in to your body as we start listening or attuning to the sense of comfort that you have. Scanning briefly through your head, Your neck, Your left shoulder, Arm and hand. Down your right shoulder, Arm and hand. Down the front of your torso, Down the back of your torso. Down your left hip, Leg and foot. Down your right hip, Your right leg and foot. Now place one hand on your sternum, So on your ribcage. And place the other hand below your belly button near your pubic bone. Place your hands so that they are resting comfortably on your body and you are not using any effort to keep them there. Now start to notice how your breath is entering and leaving your body. As you breathe in or as you breathe out, Pay attention to how your hands are moving with the rhythm of the breath. Now in somatic education we aim to relax muscles by improving the level of motor or conscious control that you have over these muscles. And to do this it's necessary to perform the movements with your full awareness. Paying particular attention to the internal sensations that you may have. It's totally fine and to be expected that these will be non-verbal. And secondly we move always within the range of comfort and ease in the body. So everything you do in this lesson, Please stay in your zone of complete comfort and relaxation. By supporting this space of safe relaxation your body will learn and release at a much faster rate than if we were going to move quickly or into the areas of pain or discomfort. Finally this is very subtle work so I invite you to move as slowly as possible. It might not be easy to move slowly and actually that's the whole point. Now if you haven't already, Bring your knees up so that your feet are flat on the floor and place your feet wide enough apart or close enough together that your knees do not want to fall outwards or inwards and that your legs can remain vertical without too much or without any muscular effort. Now as you inhale, Try and inhale into your belly and arch your lower back slightly. As you exhale, Feel the arch release from your lower back, Come to a point of neutral spine before repeating this cycle. So inhaling, Letting your back arch slightly and exhaling and unwinding the arch of your back. At your own pace do this a third time. Now on the next exhale, Flatten your lower back into the rug or the ground where you're lying. As you inhale, Release inside of your torso, Let the air fill your belly, Let the spine come to its neutral relaxed curve. Repeat this two more times. So exhaling, Tightening your stomach so that you're flattening your lumbar spine against the ground and inhaling. As you inhale, Slowly with as much control as you can, Release as you let the belly fill and the spine return to neutral. Now I'd like you to put those two movements together. So inhale, Arch your back as you breathe in, Exhale, Release your back, Continue to exhale past the relaxed spine so that you're flattening your lower back against the ground. Inhaling, Releasing attention in your stomach, Letting the air fill all directions in your abdomen, Letting your back arch slightly. Repeating this cycle, So exhaling, Releasing an arch, Inhaling, Releasing the flattening and then consciously coming in to the arch. As you repeat this movement, Pay attention to where you can feel the tension at each phase of this cycle. See if you can release the tension when you're moving towards the midpoint of your breath. See if you can release that with as much subtlety and control as you can bring to the movements at present. And when you've finished the repetition you're on, Rest for a moment. You can bring your hands back to your sides. You can stretch your legs out and notice the sensations as you rest that you feel now in your abdomen, In your lumbar spine. And then bring your feet back up, Knees up, Feet planted on the ground and you can bring if you'd like your hands back, One to your sternum or to your ribcage and the other to your lower belly. From here I'm going to, Just let me describe what we're going to do before we do this together. I'm going to ask you to breathe in a natural in-breath, Not a large in-breath just until it's comfortable. Then I'd like you to hold your breath and holding your breath I'd like you to move the air that is inside of you up from your belly into your ribs and then down from your ribs into your belly and back up to the ribcage and back down to the belly. I'd like you to try and repeat this raising and lowering of the breath as many times as is possible before you feel the slightest discomfort in holding your breath. When you feel that discomfort just relax, Exhale, Inhale, Let your breathing normalise and then we can try it again. You're welcome to do this at your own pace but I will also guide us through three sets so you're welcome to follow me if you'd like as well. So inhaling at the back arch, Holding, Then push the air down sorry push the air up, Push the air up into the ribcage, Push the air down into the abdomen, Push the air up into the ribcage, Push the air down into the abdomen and repeating pushing up and pushing down trying to make that transition as smooth as possible so that you're not jumping between two points but that you are operating on a continuum as you are moving the air up and down your trunk and then relax and breathe catch your breath. When you do this again notice how far, How comfortably you can move the breath right up into the chest, Maybe even to the shoulders and down into the belly, Maybe into the pelvic floor and how your spine is going to be moving or caused to move as we are changing the internal pressure inside of your trunk. So inhaling, Arching, Holding the breath, You can release the arch, You can release, You can move now the breath from your belly up into your ribs, Ribs down to belly and then alternating between these two positions moving that ball of air up and down. So if you can take at least five seconds to move one direction and five seconds to move the other direction. What we're isolating through this movement is really focusing on the movement of the diaphragm. When you're ready catch your breath again and we'll do this a third time. When you're ready breathe in, Hold your breath, Move the breath, Pull the air up into your ribs, Maybe into your shoulders and down from your ribs, Through your solar plexus, Your upper stomach, Your mid stomach, Into your lower stomach, Your pelvis and back from your pelvis up to your stomach, Your belly, The level of your solar plexus and the ribs, The shoulders. Moving this back down whatever speed you can manage at the moment. Alternating until you need to catch your breath again. Now stretch out your legs and if you can do this by rolling that's going to be easiest but try and roll onto your stomach. You can place your hands under your forehead, Find a way to lie comfortably on your stomach. We're going to do the same breathing exercise from this position. So inhale arch, Feel the air come into the lower portion of your abdomen, Hold the breath and then move the breath between your ribs and your abdomen backwards and forwards until it's uncomfortable enough you need to catch your breath again. Do this three times. I won't guide you that you have a sense of this movement now by yourself. You might notice as you're performing this that the feeling of this movement both in terms of where is moving inside your body and in terms of maybe the psychological side of it may be very very different than when you were lying on your back. For the moment focus on internal sensations. Where is breath coming in to my lower abdomen? How is the breath filling my ribs and my shoulders? And the critical question, How much control can I have as I move the breath, Move the pressure around my body? This might be your last third repetition. Inhale, Hold, Move the air back and forth. You might be interested also to see how your spine is flexing or extending with the movements you make. When you've finished roll back onto your back, Stretch your legs out so that you're in a comfortable position. And before we close, Sense back into your breathing body, Noticing if there are any differences or any changes in how your breath is entering and leaving the body. There may be a difference in the quality or the level of sensation in some areas. Just notice this as you integrate this change in body organization. If you're finding this hard you can place your hands back onto your ribs and onto your belly and see if you can feel any differences in movement. Again, This isn't really about achieving something. This is around developing a more accurate, More connected relationship with your body, Which is really a fundamental aspect of yourself. When you're ready you can rest here after we finish. You may roll onto your side, Gradually get to your feet and continue with your day. Thank you.