“Stay with me, just breath.”

Pearl Jam

Have you ever noticed the little tummy of an infant at sleep?  It moves up and down with each precious baby breath.  This is the natural movement of the diaphragm muscle at work.  We all have a diaphragm muscle but overtime it can weaken and not function to its fullest capacity.  It’s located right below the rib cage.  As you inhale it pulls down to give more room for the lungs to expand and fill with air.  As you exhale it pushes up to help move the air out of the lungs.

Over time and with less physical activity our breathing becomes shallower.  The strength and elasticity of the diaphragm weakens.  The shoulders may try to help and take up some of the slack by raising and lowering with each breath.   Do you carry a lot of stress in your shoulders?   The remedy may be as simple as strengthening your diaphragm.  With breathing exercises you can learn to not only breathe better and stronger, but also reduce shoulder stress, increase vitality and strengthen your immune system!  These days more than ever we all could surely use some immune system building.

Here’s a deep breathing exercise you can do right now as you read this.

Sit up straight and place your hands at the bottom of your rib-cage.  Finding the bottom of the rib-cage can be a challenge in itself with extra hibernation pounds.  Have fun with it and do your best to estimate where the bottom of the ribcage is.  When you get in close proximity, that’s where your diaphragm muscle is too.  Let the warmth of your hands welcome a deeper movement of your breath.  Watch as the inhale causes your belly to slightly expand out for the lungs to fill.  As you exhale the belly comes down and in.

A regular practice of this focused belly breath movement can strengthen your diaphragm muscle and deepen your inspirations.  We all know the satisfying sensation of a deep full breath – it beckons a sense of overall good health and vitality.  So why not do this more often?

Belly out – inhale.

Belly in – exhale.

After several of these deep breaths, increase the length of your exhale.  Long exhales relax the body.  Sloooooow those exhales down.

Not only will this focused and slowed breathing relax you,

it’ll probably make those around you more relaxed as well.

A more relaxed me = A  more relaxed you.