Moving Into Harmony

MOVEMENT & BREATHING: HEALTH / PERFORMANCE PROGRAMS

Yoga

How to know your breathing’s functional capacities

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Tuning In requires feeling, a turning the dial of your attention and pointing to what you want to listen to. Knowing what to listen to from guidance is very helpful. I can recall when I started my meditation practice, I got lost in “silence.” As time went on my practice dulled and left me somewhat dull with life. Once I began to hear my teacher point at what we needed to pay attention to, my whole practice changed, and therefore my body and my mind….and my life changed.

Feeling, Sleep and the Breath are intimately connected and influence on another. Check out this article about this.

This is also true for the body. Having the right guidance does not mean something else may is wrong. The right guidance provides the right effort. In the Yoga right effort, means to bring together, which is the unifying principle in life. By bringing the mind in direct connection to qualities in the body one can make progress with their practice. The breath is housed in the body and all actions in the body happen because of the companionship with the breath.

So here are a few ways to fine tune your attention to the dynamics of the breath for your practice and your progress:

  • Feeling the breath move the ribs – volume
  • Noticing the rate
  • Noticing where in your chest the breath is
  • How you react to the feeling of breathlessness, the need to breathe – CO2 sensitivity

Feeling is a sense. Actually feeling, or sensing how you are being touched, is directly related to the dynamics of the life force energy (Prana, Qi, the Wind, and other names). Feeling is developed early in life, as early as being inside your mother, being held in a world of warm welcoming watery support (the 4 w’s I like to call it). This is one of our first impressions and it keeps us open and expanding in our development as a human being. The other is true too, that once the outside world is perceived as a threat, we begin to lose that powerful openness and expanding potential by withdrawing. I was shown this phenomena exists even before the heart is formed. (I’ll see if I can find some photos of the cells going toward the edge of the sac and collecting at the place where the umbilical cord will connect…..so, way early in our development.)

Sorry, I got a bit expansive in my awe of this phenomena and how much I desire to stay connected and open. I was also given the amazing wisdom from my teacher – “Feeling is the hardest thing to do as a human.” He would encourage me, when I was tied in a knot….a shape to allow my body through my interaction with the life force inside with each breath, he would kindly say “scratch the window.” Scratch the window……coupled with a poem during that time by David Whyte – Just Beyond Yourself.

Want to go a little beyond yourself and feel how the breath is working with you?

Start with Feeling. Most guidance will have you start with inhalation. I want to offer something different:

  • Start by feeling the ground that supports you. Can you trust and let go into that support below you and inside you?
    • Lying down on your back – feel from your head to your heels the ground supporting you. Can you let go into that support?
    • Sitting – feel the base of your pelvis centering on your sit bones without striving or holding AND feel aliveness in your ankles and feet (THIS is very important concept about the legs supporting you in sitting, and it comes from standing and squatting).
    • Standing – feel the feet on the earth and notice how they are on the earth (4POINTS); and how there is a descending support that comes from your letting the ground support you through the bones from the back body – tuft of skull to your heels; and front body, from your navel to your ankles….this whole region being allowed to descend into the feet. This is a practice within itself – a standing practice of finding what truly supports you. You can listen here for a guidance I give on standing.
  • In this descending process, letting go into sustainable support, can you notice your letting go in the breath? The exhale. Feel how the exhale comes from you letting go, descending.
    • The exhale can be felt in the physical body on the surface as a cascading descending feeling off the neck and shoulders – down the ribs into the belly.
    • A quality of spaciousness may be felt in the belly as you release. This keeps you from squeezing the belly and abdomen in attempt to move the exhale, and push it out. This will bring adaptations you do not want. Trust me, I did this for many years and the re-learning has taken some time and my body has had to adjust to unraveling what I thought was the way. I have learned from this BIG mistake (thank you!thank you!thank you!) in time and I know I can find my way back (I’m that little gnome at the edge of the trail whispering…..”go that way.”
    • The inhalation is determined by the exhalation and the space that is created. Then the inhalation gets invited into the doors of opening and in companionship with you fills you up where the body can take it. The mind has to observe this quality, because the mind can not comprehend all the intricacies and inter-related dynamics of what is going to happen on the next breath, so why use the mind to push the breath – why not be observant and feel what is moved and shifts with the motivation of the breath. This is the role of the life force, to move you and motivate you, and it will do what ever you ask for the activity you are in. Your true companion.
  • Then, at the end of the exhale, even when you don’t feel air leaving your nose, you might notice a pause. Please do not manufacture a pause. It is naturally occurring, and usually present when your BOLT score (see video below to measure) is above 15-18. So feel if that is present.
  • Then, in that pause, there is the origins, or initiation, of the in-breath. So from the belly, feel your breath originate below your navel and this motivation will give rise and expansion to the lower ribs. You can imagine your cup is being filled from the bottom up, but again please do not manufacture this, it is just an image not something your mind needs to do. This is your inhalation. From the low ribs to the tops of your shoulders and base of neck. Rejoice in receiving this breath and how it moves you.

Let’s discuss Rhythm. I mentioned above feeling the sequence of the breath. Now like the bass of the band, or the drummers beat, there is a rhythm. This is a rate, or pulse in the breath. In exercise physiology (and respiratory physiology) the rate is counted and described per minute. Best measured by a device or someone counting your breaths without you knowing they are watching and counting your breaths. The mind will get involved and your rate will not be accurate the moment you watch it or feel you are being watched….just the way of the mind. So, your respiratory rate (RR) is best measured by a device. I am working on a way to link into what you might feel is your natural rhythm and rate…..stay tuned.

Nasal breathing vs. Mouth breathing. This article can help. For now you can inquire into your way of breathing – through your day do you nasal breathe or mouth breathe? and, as you walk or exercise or get into a bit of an intense level of activity (can even be mind), do you mouth breathe or nasal breathe?

Your sensitivity to CO2 (the by-product of your metabolism) is a very important gas to understand how it works in your body….it is not bad for you.

I offer this simple measure for you to discover your sensitivity to CO2 and your breathing functions and capacities.

Want to learn more about how you can harness the power behind each breath you take, and how to make the most out of your health & fitness program?

Article by Shawn M Flot, MPT. He is now a Certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor. Combined with his 28year experience in Exercise Physiology, Physical Therapist for health and performance, and a dedicated Yoga practitioner is making for a power-house to help many people succeed in re-discovering their own health, healing and well-being.

The Amazing Health Benefits of the Breath – Nitric Oxide

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Nitric Oxide was originally discovered in 1986 by Dr. Louis Ignarro in his lab. And he and two of his colleges were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998. This naturally produced gas is as important for the health of the human body as Vitamin D. YEP!!!!

From Dr. Ignarro are the key benefits he found with Nitric Oxide. Through nasal breathing this substance is stimulated and circulated from the paranasal sinuses into the respiratory tract. The lining of the respiratory tract has a strong affinity for nitric oxide for support with immune function, tissue health and healing, and circulation/exchange of respiratory gases. WOW! NOW you know how smart the body is, and how the nose is intimately tied to your health.

Here is a lecture by Dr. Ignarro

As for the importance of healthy nasal passages – the ole osteopaths, Dr. Andrew Still & Dr. William Sutherland, referred to the ethmoid bone (the passages from which the air through the nasal passages pass into the skull to vibrate the pituitary gland) are the “lungs of the cranium.” BOOM!

Here is another video/podcast with Dr. Ignarro with some great insights:

Why relaxing down enhances your flexibility

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If the well is distant, its water does not quench the thirst of the pilgrim – Chinese Proverb

Your health is being flexible, and your flexibility is not about how your stretch……it’s about how you descend to harness fluidity in your tissues and your mind. Just like in the desert, or in the mountains, the well-spring of nourishment is always found in the hollows of the earth – the canyon, the mountain, the well.

How do you harness your fluidity? You learn to descend within the body. My teacher, Shandor Remete, from the beginning, guided us to cultivate the ability to descend our energy by the proper use of how you move your body. So much of life triggers us to ascend upward – for example:

  • The overuse of the eyes and the brain.
  • A surprising and often frightening sensation of pain
  • Being “ready” for what’s expected or ahead of you
  • Holding yourself upright to maintain a “good” posture
  • elevate your mind for clear thoughts.

This is in contrast to the actual nourishing element of water that keeps us flexible, mobile, and agile. The higher you live, the more distant the access to the balancing mechanism that promotes dynamic fluidity. Water travels down the mountain, down the canyon, and eventually to the ocean. The physiological processes are related to natural phenomena – as in the natural wild world, so inside the wilderness of your body.

Dripping water can eat through a stone – Chinese Proverb

The “region” of the body that relates to the downward force to access the elemental nature of water, consists of approximately 70% of your total body. It represents – the back body – from the tuft of the skull to the heels; and the front body – from the navel to the front of the ankle. The gross body part, anatomical, that relates to the water element is the feet. The ankles are referred to as “the regulators of all fluids in the body” (wisdom given to me by both my Hatha Yoga teacher, Shandor Remete; and my Manual Therapy teacher, Frank Lowen).

What practices can you “exercise” to harness your fluidity? Good question.

Avoid Stretching what you think is tight.

Shocked? Consider how long you have been stretching to feel flexible? Now consider how much strain and stress you are putting on those pinpoint focused areas you feel are tight, without the aide of harnessing your fluidity. Your:

  • bottoms of your feet (plantar fascia)
  • calves (gastrocs, soleus)
  • thighs – front (quadriceps); back (hamstrings)
  • low back (quadratus lumborum, back extensors, spine)
  • hips – front (iliopsoas); back (glutes, piriformis)
  • shoulders (rotator cuff)
  • chest (pectoralis group)
  • neck and skull (trapezius, suboccipitals)

Some of you even contract one muscle group to stretch the apposing. Or you contract the muscle group you want to stretch, then relax to stretch it (cuz you think it fatigues that you can pull it apart more). Well, I am here to say…….

That is a lot of energy consumed to get a short term result. Doesn’t last. In fact the moment you return to your life that engages your up-ness. POOF! gone….you are back to being tight and probably feel more stiff than before you stretched.

Stretching, in my clinical experience is unnecessary stress and strain without the essential ingredient of dynamic fluidity. It is like a rubber band that snaps back. Consider the material – a rubber band, a piece of taffy – what happens when it is dry, frayed, or cold? It usually doesn’t have the same pliability, and if you are using a rubber band, I am certain you ignored that one or threw it away; or if it was the only one you had to use (you don’t have another hamstring) you were cautious to not overstretch because it break, and snap. Ouch, that end that snapped to my finger was painful. Ouch, I just “tore” my hamstring stretching in yoga class. And more subtly, your body is sensing undo stress and strain with it’s signals of ouch, protects by tightening (kinda like how your protecting brace when you know something potentially harmful is coming, or experienced) and tries to brunt the brute force attack by trying to stretch.

Learn how to use your feet and your ankles. And learn how to descend through squatting.

Yes squatting. It’s not what you think. Did you mind go to the power lifter in the gym squatting 300 lbs.? Admit it, you hesitated if you have read this far. You squat every day, many times a day. How many times do you sit down, and get up from a chair? How many times do you sit down to toilet? How many times do you lower yourself to get something? My suggestion is to use your every day activities to give yourself the opportunity to feel, discover, learn and integrate what you feel, or how you are guided to descend, that delivers a life benefit of the skill of descending to find your flexibility.

I will be discussing more details on this important topic in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned.

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