Last week, I wrote about a simple breathing practice that brings awareness to our moments of human suffering. This week, I want to go deeper into the benefits of consistent diaphragmatic breathing (described last week as a stand-alone practice). I deepened my own practice of "long deep breathing" during the year following the birth of my son, studying Kundalini Yoga at a Sikh Ashram. The following are some well-established benefits (not an exhaustive list):

Physiological relaxation (helps alleviate fight, flight, freeze, fawn as well as emotional upset, fear, and trauma responses).
Oxygenation of your blood (more oxygen to the brain and all the body's cells).
Reduces blood pressure and heart rate (a powerful tool for self-care).
Increases release of gas waste from your lungs (decreases toxicity in body).
Supports and improves muscular function to preventing strain.

Because the practice produces the above effects, it is highly beneficial for those suffering from Anxiety, Asthma, COPD, Stress and Heart Conditions. Diaphragmatic or "long deep breathing" practice does not replace medical treatment, if practiced consistently, it supports your health, healing and wellness.

Chest breathing combined with mouth breathing is the default breathing mode for most, but results in hyperventilation, inadequate ventilation of the lower lobes of the lungs and ironically, induces aspects of fight or flight syndrome. In 30+ years innovating in clinical therapy, I taught every client how to replace shallow, inadequate breathing with diaphragmatic breathing. Greater oxygenation of the body means the same for the brain. And, since the diaphragm itself is connected to the pericardium, "long deep breathing" massages the heart, assisting in circulation.

"Your brain is distributed throughout your body, and your body also subtly takes shape in response to your life experience," writes Amanda Blake, one of my teachers and author of Your Body is your Brain.

Did you know that afferent nerve signals make up 80% of information going to the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) from the organs, and skin? Efferent nerve signals make up the 20% of information sent from the brain to the body.

Practicing with the breath is a method of embodied, as opposed to conceptual, self-awareness--the body sensing itself; in conceptual self-awareness the body thinks about itself. The former allows us greater presence and the latter to travel anywhere in time. Both are necessary. Having spent 30 years helping clients experience the difference, I can tell you that we err on the side of the conceptual.

This week, I suggest that you add an anatomical visualization to the 4-part breathing and a new position for your tongue:

The roof of the mouth (palate), the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor membranes are perpendicular to the spine. Some people use their diaphragm so little that it can be contracted and tucked up into the thorax. Your pelvic floor also impacts many things about your posture and physiology (more in another article).
Try rolling the tip of your tongue up to gently touch the roof of the mouth, this keeps your teeth apart and your jaw released as you do the breathing. If you clench, this is a simple and excellent practice to adopt.

For reasons that I will explain next week, releasing your jaw encourages more relaxed and deeper breathing, as well as a release of tension in the neck and head that affect posture, position, and movement. I hope you give this practice a try as it will support you physiologically and change habits of neglect to a mindful embodied awareness serving your wellbeing.

Hi, I'm Liz! If you are looking for support and guidance to connect more deeply with your embodied awareness, ease and dharma, I have been teaching clients self-transforming tools and practices such as mindfulness meditation, breath work and self awareness in 30+ years an an Integrative Neuromuscular Therapist. Now is the time to nurture your body, mind and soul with practices designed for gentleness, precision and letting go. I also offer 1:1 sessions to address potential for growth in life transitions, transformation, and transcendence.