Free the diaphragm

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This is a slower lesson, expanding into all areas of the chest cavity. In the first few movements, you practice pressing into the floor as you inhale. This lesson also lets go of all the tension in the breathing apparatus, helping you gain full access to the complete dimensionality of the diaphragm. The breath feels free, wide, expansive, and easy.

As with all breathing, this lesson helps with posture, digestion, balance, and improving emotional states.

AY179

The next part of pressing the air into the chest cavity in many positions. The slowness invites a more complete softening, yielding, and letting go in the ribs, allowing for much fuller, simpler breathing.

The gluing the lungs series is an incredible experience of shifting the way we conceive of the breath. The movement of the lungs is examined from all dimensions in many shapes of the spine and ribs and positions in gravity. The first lesson is both on the back and some in sitting (you can always use a chair if the floor is difficult). The change in muscle tone can be remarkable.

This lesson uses your attention more than it uses movement. The breath is taken in and immediately expelled, in a contrived, forced way. Dr. Feldenkrais says in the original text, “We will do breathing, but in a special way. We will try to define, through awareness, additional portions of breathing that we have not done to date.”

He says to listen to the filling of the space as you breathe in and quickly expel the air. This lesson will eliminate strain in the chest that contributes to neck strain, preventing the neck from lengthening and resting. There are so many benefits to taking a full, long breath. Do this lesson as indicated, with short, quick exhalations and feel the inhalation at the end!

AY201

Part two of gluing the lungs—these are really just parts of an ongoing lesson that Dr. Feldenkrais taught—has some sitting and standing to help you feel where you can expand and let go of holding. The thought experiment is really a directed use of your attention to examine all parts of the breathing apparatus and where the tension we hold inhibits the oxygen from reaching our system.

Note: In this lesson, Dr. Feldenkrais gives a long, detailed, and technical lecture on how our health is linked to the efficiency of the breath in that we can work harder (and burn more calories) when we breathe more fully. We do not strain so much and can work the muscles with greater force when we’re not hesitating.

AY202

Part three of gluing the lungs. I like this one a lot: it has some sidebending and then scooting the pelvis over to increase the bend as you explore the ultimate length of the lungs. Then you stand to see how the side bending affects the muscles…all without stretching one bit.

There is a little bit on the belly where you tilt the knees and feel the movement of the lungs in different dimension. The whole system feels somehow cleansed after this, almost like the breathing has been exfoliated and all the unconscious holding that we do has been smoothed out.

AY203

This is a luscious lesson focusing on the excursion of the diaphragm. By investigating all the elements of the breath, we can find a fuller range of movement in all aspects of life.

This lesson helps free the neck, restore upright posture, and, of course, breathe easy. This is one of my favorites when I don’t want to think much but want to let the tension drift away!

(Variation on seesaw breathing)

Feel how the tone of the belly affects your ability to move the arms and position the head on top of the spine. This lesson has lots of seesaw movements of the belly and the chest. It’s a good practice to differentiate the muscle patterns of the trunk so that the diaphragm is free to move.

This lesson has many repetitions in many positions. I use the arms as a reference here, helping you see how flexible ribs and a long belly enable easy arms. You will feel longer, taller, and lighter after this.

(SF evening class #1, Better breathing)

This lesson helps you find the natural inhalation by focusing on the exhalation and expanding the lower abdomen. You will let go of stress and gripping in the low belly just by going through this experiment. Test exhaling through the mouth and then mouth/nose alternations. The many variations challenge your idea of what breathing “should” be.

This is a quiet, attentive, spacious lesson, good for before bed to reset your system. A good follow-on from 267 Let go of tension.

With so many variations, your system cannot help but find a new pathway for the diaphragm.

Don’t think, just go through the lesson and see what happens. You will be drawing the abdomen in and breathing out or in, then pushing it out and breathing out or in, in many, many positions, some of which might surprise you. I urge you not to try to perform each variation perfectly.

The idea behind so many possibilities is that eventually one will land and inform the others. Just “mess about” as Moshe would say, and your system will thank you. You’ll stand taller with a free belly and a new way to respond to any dynamic in life.