BreathWork

Mechanics of Diaphragmatic breathing:

Most people reverse breath or breathe into their chest. For proper Diaphragmatic Breathing…

◦  Place 1 hand on your belly and the other on your chest

◦ Inhale slowly through your nose* into your belly and feel your lower hand expand without your top hand moving at all.

This may be challenging for some so try your best.

◦ We try to always start in the belly, then roll the breath up into the chest and shoulders for a full yogic breath.

◦ Exhale by relaxing the jaw and breathing with a silent “ha” sound from the back of the throat.

The Elements

The 4 Elemental Breathing Techniques we will be using for our Breathwork Sessions are:

Earth, Water, Air and Fire

1. EARTH Breath - FULL, SLOW & DEEP

4 seconds in and 4 seconds out. This pattern is used at the beginning and end of each song. Slow deep full breaths. Push for maximum expansion. Really feel the breath and open the body, ribs, belly. Then Fully exhale

2. WATER Breath

2 seconds in and 2 seconds out.

imagine a wave washing up and down the shore.

3. AIR Breath

1-1 rhythm so we pick up the pace to double time (twice as fast).

4. FIRE Breath

FULL SPEED - you can double speed again or just let go into what you feel is good

To end each cycle we do a full inhale and a HOLD with lungs full for 10-15 seconds

◦ Visualize a light traveling up the spine

◦ Hold your pelvic floor

◦ Squeeze abdominals

◦ Feel pressure raising to your head

◦ Counting down to let go 5-4-3-2-1

◦ Relax the body and melt into the ground while performing Buzz Breath

◦ Hold on empty feel the stillness for a few seconds before taking a slow deep EARTH BREATH breathing until we count you into the next song.

Buzz Breath:

This is also known as Bhramari Breath which is an ancient pranayama breathing technique. The simple version of it is to exhale to slowly release air as you make a humming or buzzing sound. Focusing that energy around your nose or nasal cavity. That’s where you want to feel the buzzing.

Breathing this way can increase Nitric Oxide production up to 15x (1500%). There are many benefits of Nitric Oxide in the body like it may assist in having altered states of consciousness.

Other benefits of the humming is that it will stimulate the vagus nerve and improve vagal tone. Studies show Vagus Nerve stimulation also lowers blood pressure, decreases heart rate, reduces the body’s response to stress, and improves digestion.

The Shake

The intention of the movement or shake is to open up the body and get the energy flowing. As humans we hold on to emotions, trauma and stress. Our body physically clenches or stiffens up which may not be healthy for us. In the wild, many animals after experiencing a traumatic event will go into a seizure-like shake to release any of the trauma stored physically in their body.

For some reason we as humans have failed to adapt to this or have forgotten how to release these trapped emotions.

This 5 minute exercise is an invitation to start to loosen up and let go. Being blindfolded here increases the impact of this exercise exponentially, especially for those who are self conscious or in their head.