Deflation

Picture a large red balloon floating in front of you. The surface is stretched so thin that the light shines through. Balloon tension is good. Human tension? Not so much.

With a little practice you can use the balloon image and your breathing to release physical tension at will. Deflation is a relatively easy exercise since it is based on the natural exhalation phase of your breathing cycle.

Since you never stop breathing 24/7, Mother Nature designed each exhalation as a mini-rest. To inhale, the muscles between your ribs (intercostals) cause the ribs to flare slightly up and out. The muscular floor (diaphragm) stretched across the bottom of your ribcage flattens downward. This muscular movement creates enough of a vacuum in your chest to draw in new air.

Exhalation happens when all these muscles relax and let go. The ribs drop down again. The diaphragm rises to its domed-up natural resting position in the ribcage. The slightly smaller chest cavity pushes the stale air out. Inhalation is work. Exhalation is letting go.

You may be surprised at how much physical tension you have been carrying. After awhile tension begins to feel normal. Use the balloon image and imagine that each time you breathe out, you are releasing tension from your body along with the outgoing air. After a little practice release of deep tension will take only a few breath-cycles. Just imagine that you are releasing air from a balloon.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Complete Breath

The Complete Breath massages and cleanses all the nooks and crannies of both lungs. It isn’t often necessary during a typical day to function in “full lung mode.” Most of the time you can do well enough by deep breathing without activating the tight narrow upper chest.

However, when you dash up the stairs (for those of you who still dash) or chase after a two-year-old, you need additional oxygen so you ADD mid-chest and collarbone breathing TO the deep breathing (NOT INSTEAD OF). It is, however, essential that you exercise every square-inch of your lung tissue regularly to keep it clean and elastic.

1. Empty as much air as is comfortable while keeping a straight and balanced spine. As you inhale slowly through your nose, let the first bit of incoming air expand your lower ribcage.
2. Continuing with that same inhalation, ADD a bit more of breath #1 to the mid-lungs (behind the breastbone).
3. The final bit of air fills the tight narrow upper lungs. Raise your shoulders slightly to make space. This single incoming breath should flow seamlessly without strain or exaggeration. Do not overfill!
4. The outgoing air follows the same pattern – empty the bottom first, then the breastbone area and finally the small amount of remaining air from the narrow and restricted upper lungs. If you have been lazy-breathing for sometime, Complete Breath may make you cough once or twice as you clear all the lazy bits.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Rainbow

The Rainbow is gymnastics for the brain and is so much fun (albeit challenging). Be patient. You may find at first that you have an easier time concentrating on a simple colored object such as a red rose, blue pitcher, green leaf or yellow lemon instead of an abstract color. Eventually you will be able to experience pure color without the need for an image.

Since this may be your first try with this type of exercise, it is especially important to keep your breathing low, slow and steady.

1. Close your eyes and wait for your breathing to slow. Create a mental picture of a bright RED object such as a red wagon. Hold the image in your mind’s eye for as long as the color is vivid. Trust me, you will get better and better at this.
2. When the RED object fades, create an ORANGE image. Stay focused as long as possible.
3. Follow with YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE and finally VIOLET.
4. Take several additional breaths with your eyes closed before you “surface.”

It is preferable (but not mandatory) to work from warm (red, orange, yellow) through cool (green, blue, violet). When you feel ready to move from image to pure color, try initially to enlarge the colored object in your imagination, until it is huge, filling your entire mental screen. Then shift easily to color alone.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Up From The Ooze

Once upon a time, a fish (curious, clumsy, or desperately hungry) flung itself out of a brackish sea onto the oozy mud for the very first time. That premier fish dared the air probably for only an instant before squirming back into the sea, but its offspring dared again and again. They returned until their fins could crawl and their bodies could process air. The rest, of course, is pulmonary history.

Since the beginning, human beings have been fascinated by the mysteries and the possibilities of their own breathing. It was clear, early on, that there is more to this breathing business than a simple shuffling of air. Could it be that our gentle tide of breath provides a delicate, invisible link that connects us physically and spiritually, one to the other, and binds us, in turn, to the rhythms of our planet and our universe?

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Respiratory Superhero

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to go over the top with anatomy stuff but a few basics are helpful to help you appreciate how truly extraordinary your body is.

We’ve already touched on the double layer of intercostals muscles sandwiched between your ribs. Your big diaphragm, however, is simply the superhero of all breathing muscles! It is a complex, uneven elastic floor across the bottom of your ribcage, directly under your lungs and on top of your liver, stomach, pancreas and spleen. Since your lunch has to get from your mouth into the acid pit of your stomach, your esophagus passes through a tight (hopefully) opening in the diaphragm.

Although you can easily find your intercostals between your ribs, don’t even bother poking around in search of your diaphragm because it is fairly well buried. To further complicate matters, it doesn’t lie flat and neat like the bottom of a bucket or the floor of a birdcage. At the finish of each exhalation, the diaphragm resembles a lopsided hill with the high side rising up and over your big liver on the right. The diaphragm is completely elastic, powerful, responsive and cooperative. The domed diaphragm you see in the picture is in the exhalation position. When you inhale it flattens down ever so slightly and that creates a vacuum that draws in your next breath.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Waterwheel

We have made a to-do about getting your basic breathing down from the tight narrow upper chest into your wide elastic lower ribcage. Deep breathing is more efficient, more rewarding and produces more miles-per-gallon (if you were a car).

However, it is important to activate and be aware of all areas of your lungs. During Waterwheel you will direct the incoming air into your MID-CHEST, just behind your breastbone. Accurate placement is more important than how much air you take in so there is no need to swell up like a weather balloon. Waterwheel is more about quality than quantity.

1. Sit on the front edge of a straight-backed chair. Fold your thumbs into your palms and lay the backs of your hands on the chair seat behind you, palms up and fingers pointing backwards (index fingers close together if possible).
2. Breathe in slowly through your nose and gently blow out the outgoing air. Keep your shoulders low and motionless and your bellybutton absolutely still.
3. Let the incoming air fill up the space just behind your breastbone. Imagine that is the only place where you have lungs. Guide the incoming air there. Continue for as long as the exercise is comfortable and pleasurable.
   

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Review #5

It is imperative that you see a pulmonary specialist for evaluation if you have chronic breathing problems such as a cough or wheezing that hang on for more than a couple weeks.

If you, or anyone in your family, have been diagnosed with a chronic condition, you are not alone. There are countless national support groups, organizations and foundations available at no cost. Your search will lead to a wealth of the latest scientific information that can help you ask better questions and make better decisions. Never take at face value any online treatment advice without first running the suggestions or products by a doctor who knows you and is familiar with your medical history.

Colds and influenza come from viruses, not from bacteria. Antibiotics are effective only against bacteria. Inappropriate overuse and careless disposal of antibiotics have led to strains of superbugs that are always one jump ahead of our medical arsenal.

If you decide to skip a flu shot, let it be because you have concerns about the efficacy of the serum, not because you were too busy or forgot.

The breathing exercises are merely colors on your palette, not to be confused with the painting itself. The exercises themselves are neither magical nor mysterious. Their purpose is simply to re-introduce you to yourself. Without regular practice they are merely words on a page.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.