Breathing is complicated. There are many different ways of breathing, which vary according to what we are doing, our spinal curves, and our levels of stress.
However, there is one very easy way of breathing which is unbelievably relaxing. Even better, its completely noiseless – hurrah. No funny sighing or groaning. The eyes stay open and we don’t have to ‘watch the breath’ – something I find almost impossible to do for more than a nano-second.
This is how to begin:
- Lie on the back and bend up the knees, so the feet are flat on the floor.
- Lengthen the spine into the floor and slightly tuck in the chin. It may be more comfy to put the head on a folded towel or similar. Lengthening the spine stops the spinal curves changing shape as we breathe.
- Put one hand on the upper abdominals, so the little finger rests in the naval and the other hand lies on the top of the chest.
- Breathe in so the belly pops up. Breathe out and the belly goes down. Keep the chest still.
- It is also worth checking out that the shoulders keep still instead of heaving up and down.
- Reduce the amplitude of the breath to the minimal. After all, how much oxygen do we need to lie on our back?
- Get it right, and there will come a deeply relaxed still point between the out breath and the next in breath. Here’s why it is so relaxing:
Breathing with the belly rising on the in breath is diaphragmatic.
The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle attached to the bottom of the rib cage. As we breathe in, it contracts and lowers, possibly making the belly stick out. When we breathe out, the diaphragm rises, flattening the stomach. Which is not the same as pulling the belly in.
The lungs themselves are strongly elastic and get stretched as they fill with air. As we breathe out, they want to relax and return to their resting shape – incidentally, this is not completely empty of air. Therefore, in this exercise, there is absolutely no effort involved in the out breath.
So if we breathe in with minimum effort, using just the diaphragm, then let the lungs release the air, at the point between the out breath and the next in breath, all the muscles to do with breathing – and there are many – are completely relaxed. We are in equilibrium.
This simple diaphramatic breathing is even easier to achieve when upright, since gravity helps the diaphragm go down. So it takes even less effort to breathe in. And still no effort to breathe out.
We all have habitual ways of breathing, and the way that makes this style of very relaxed breathing hard to achieve is what is called paradoxical breathing – or reverse breathing. With this style of breathing, the breast bone is used like a pump handle.
To breathe in, the breast bone, or sternum, lifts, thus raising the ribcage and causing the lungs to inflate. To breathe out, the breast bone lowers and the lungs deflate.
As the ribs lift to breathe in, the belly pulls in. As they lower to breathe out, the belly pops out.
Although this style has uses in mobilising the front of the ribcage and decompressing the abdominal contents with the in breath, it is very inefficient and associated with feeling stressed.
So the most efficient way of breathing normally is to use the diaphragm. This can be retrained with a bit of persistance.
However, if we only breathe diaphramatically, the ribs do not move and so can become immobile.
It is also possible to breathe using the diaphragm in a different way – as we breathe in the belly stays still, but the lower part of the ribcage expands.
As I said earlier, breathing is extremely complicated.
But to breathe to have instant, deep relaxation is simple, silent and effortless.
We all breathe in different ways at different times, according to activity levels and stress levels.
There are basically two different ways of breathing: one using the ribs and the other the diaphragm.
Overall, each of us tends to favour one particular way of breathing. It is useful to practise both ways, since both have their uses.
An interesting, and rather tricky exercise, is to work out how we breathe normally. The moment we think about our breath, it changes. So we have to sneak up on it.
Breathing using the ribs.
This tends to be the most popular way of breathing. It uses the
This is not the most efficient way of breathing because the air tends to fill the upper parts of the lungs. and it also is related to high stress levels.
Breathing using the diaphragm.
This way of breathing is more efficient since air gets sucked into all of the lungs.
If we only breathe that way, the abs get over tight, causing pelvic floor problems.
Mixed breathing.
In truth, we use a variety of methods to breathe according to circumstance – and the shape of our spinal curves. So breathing is a very individual event. If we are working on improving spinal curvature, the experience of breathing will change over time.
To truly breathe hard AND efficiently strengthens the major muscles of inspiration and the core.
It is the hardest thing I have ever worked on with clients. Sometimes both the client and I are chewing the carpet in frustration. But when good breathing gets going, the results are remarkable.
Breathing to relax.