I finished my book and it was time for another one. I was standing in front of my bookshelf and nothing was jumping out. You know the, “I have nothing to wear,” thing except for books.
I thought, “Okay, what has been on my shelf for awhile that maybe I forgot about and never got to?” This green flimsy thing caught my attention. I slipped it from it’s home and flipped through it. Illustrations. I like those. Anatomy. I like that. Sure, why not?
I bought the book almost 20 years ago. It was actually a text book for one of my dance classes in university. I never read it back then. Some how, with every move, it continued to make the cut, never being donated, or recycled. It was playing the long game with my heart and as I brought it with me in to the bed room I swear I could hear it say, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
The book is called, Taking Root To Fly: Articles on Functional Anatomy by a woman named Irene Dowd who was a dancer, choreographer, teacher and neuromuscular trainer and bodyworker.
That night I read the first essay about posture and alignment. Her words changed me. A student of human form and function as a dancer and now a doctor, I’ve been working with the body since I was barely walking. Her exposition and illustration altered how I saw all of it.
No wonder the little guy stuck around for so long. He was convinced I needed to read him and he was right.
The second essay was immediately applicable to interactions with my patients and that was her essay on breathing. The breath. The most fundamental and overlooked part of our daily life. Our breath has the power to refresh us, calm us down, heal us, and allow us to forgive. Everything can change in a single breath.
Many of my patients don’t know how to breath fully and deeply. I have moments where I forget too, especially when I’m feeling rushed or doing the dishes.
Irene’s method has changed my breath patterns, and as I’m teaching people the technique it’s changing their breath and their lives too. Here is my interpretation of her idea.
4 Steps to Easy, Relaxed Breathing
- Lay comfortably on your back to start. Place your hands on your abdomen.
- Imagine there is a cylinder in the centre of your body running down your core into your abdomen.
- As you breath in the cylinder expands in diameter (it gets wider) and height (it gets longer and extends even lower into the pelvis and higher up into the chest).
- As you breath out the cylinder passively shrinks back to it’s original size, shape and position.
The visualization allows the mind to direct the body parts in charge of breathing to function perfectly.
As you breath in the cylinder expanding in all directions causes the ribs to move sideways out away from the spine, the belly rises up towards the ceiling, and lastly the chest lifts.
On the exhale, the chest and belly fall back towards the spine and the ribs move back towards the centre line.
Lastly I suggest adding this layer:
Picture the cylinder like a hydraulic pump.
On your inhalation imagine the pump sucking in only good things from the environment. We call this “Heavenly Qi” in Chinese medicine. It’s divine guidance. It’s inspiration (as you inspire). It’s love in its purest form.
When you breath out think of the cylinder pumping out any negativity, toxicity, resentment, resistance, and stress. Out they go. Simple as that.
So there you have it. Four steps to easy, relaxed breathing.
I particularly like this method when I’m meditating and my thoughts are wandering around like a tourist with out a map. I come back to the cylinder. Immediately I’m back at my centre, connected to the current moment.
For the benefits of this check out some of my other articles about breathing and stress reduction.
Go give it a try. Report back by leaving a comment below about what you noticed. I’d love to know!
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To your healthy, thriving delightful life,
Apart of my ‘slowing down’ process is to focus on breathing with intention but to be still and centered. I love your tips and the cylinder idea – I like it. I usually just focus on the rise and fall of my belly.